I Want To Be More Than Friends, but Are We Still Friends?
by Cnerr
Summary: Gilbert and Elizabeta both have crushes on each other, but misunderstandings make them think the other doesn't like them. They even question if they are still best friends. Vash and Roderich used to be best friends, but their friendship fell apart. Roderich wants to date Vash, but will he be able to get Vash to forgive him much less love him? School AU PruHun Edelweiss
1. Chapter 1

The hallway was empty except for a few pieces of paper that had been stepped on so many times that you could no longer read them. Gilbert strutted through the empty hallways, eyeing the clock as the second hand slowly moved. He grinned as he realized he had enough time to pull everything off.

He had everything planned down to the second that he was going put his plan into action. He even left class a few seconds early to make sure he had enough time. And what was he going to do that was so important you ask? He was planning on asking out his best-friend Elizabeta. Gilbert frowned at that thought. Were they still best friends? They still talked and everything, but they didn't hang out as much as they used to.

He decided that it didn't matter and continued walking down the hallway, and started to whistle. He started reviewing the plan in his head to make sure he remembered every little detail. First he was going to catch her at her locker just before she left to go home. After exchanging mild pleasantries he would cut to the chase and ask if she wanted to see a movie with him this weekend. If she asked if it was a date, he would give her a smile and say of course it was. And if she said no-Gilbert halted at that thought. What would he do if that was the response? He then decided there was no way she would say no to someone as awesome as him and continued walking.

The bell rang and kids poured out into the hallway and volume suddenly increased. Gilbert sidestepped the mob and continued walking smoothly towards Elizabeta's locker.

Her locker was in sight, but what awaited him made him groan. Roderich was standing right there with Elizabeta, chatting away. The very sight of him made Gilbert feel the rage boil inside him. Gilbert hid himself in the crowd and opened up a random locker to hide behind. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but curiosity got the better of him. They were also having a conversation in a crowded hallway, so it's not like they didn't want to be heard.

At first Gilbert couldn't hear anything since the hallway was too loud. Eventually the noise level dropped and he was able to catch what Elizabeta was saying.

"I was wondering if we could walk home together. I have something important to tell you," she said.

"Don't you normally walk home with Gilbert? I don't think he will like it if I take his place," said Roderich.

"Please Roderich? I really need to tell you something."

"Alright."

Gilbert peaked around the edge and saw Elizabeta shuffling her feet and blushing. At that he felt his stomach drop. Elizabeta never got embarrassed over anything. To Gilbert there could be only reason why she suddenly got shy, and that was that she was planning on asking Roderich out when they walked back from school.

Gilbert didn't listen to the rest of the conversation and just shuffled away to his locker. He didn't even bother lifting his head as he walked, his heart just hear too damn much. Eventually he found himself at his locker and mechanically opened and started putting stuff in his bag. He barely even noticed it when Elizabeta walked up beside him.

"I'm going to walk home with Roderich today. I hope that's ok."

Gilbert mumbled something about it being perfectly fine and continued stuffing books in his bag.

"Um…we don't have any math homework today."

Gilbert looked in his hand and noticed that he was holding his math textbook. He just said oh and put it back in his locker.

Elizabeta grew concerned and asked, "Are you alright? You seem kind out of it."

"I'm just tired is all." A complete lie, but he wasn't going to tell her that he felt like garbage because she had just broken his heart. Elizabeta looked like she was going to say something, but just patted him on the back.

"Go to bed early today." She turned and gave him a wave which he half-heartily returned. He looked at his bag and decided that even if he did have homework, he wasn't going to do any of it tonight. He tossed his book bag in the locker and started walking home, a different route than what Elizabeta and Roderich would take.

He hadn't been walking long before it started to rain. Gilbert saw the rain as a stroke of luck, as it covered up the tears that he no longer could keep back.

* * *

Elizabeta slowly walked away and looked over her shoulder to see Gilbert in a dazed state. She bit her lower lip and was tempted to ask what the real problem was, but she couldn't leave Roderich waiting too long. He would get impatient and leave without her, and it was really important that she talked to him.

So she continued walking down the now empty hallway and headed towards the front doors where Roderich would be waiting for her. Elizabeta sighed with relief when seeing he was still standing there.

Roderich seemed to be out in his own world, his fingers moving while he stared out into the distance. Elizabeta knew him long enough to know that he was practicing one of the many compositions that he had memorized. She had to tap him on the shoulder so he would acknowledge her presence.

"Sorry. Are you ready to go," he asked.

Elizabeta nodded. Roderich opened up the door and let Elizabeta go ahead of him. They started walking down the stairs when Roderich asked what Elizabeta wanted to talk about.

"How about we wait till we're farther from the school? I don't want anyone eavesdropping on our conversation."

Roderich nodded and would have said more, but he got distracted by something. Elizabeta followed his line of sight and one of their fellow classmates. She peeked a look at Roderich's face and could only describe it as a face of longing. It seemed as her suspicions were correct.

They had started the path home, but there was someone from one of their classes in front of them. Still not wanting to take the chance of being over heard, she decided to wait. All of a sudden she felt a drop on her nose. She looked up and saw the dark overcast. The trees above them were blocking most of the rain, but it wouldn't be long before the trees would be useless. She cursed as she had forgotten her umbrella at home today.

Roderich pulled an umbrella out of his bag and opened it. "We can share my umbrella since you forgot yours." Elizabeta thanked him and moved closer to him.

Sure enough it started to pour, and the sound of the rain covered up most of the noise. Elizabeta saw this as a great opportunity to finally talk about her plan.

"So I realized lately both of our love lives suck," she said.

Roderich raised an eyebrow and slightly turned his head. "Care to explain?"

"Well we both like someone, and circumstances are keeping us apart from them."

Roderich blushed. "I don't like anyone!"

"Bullshit. I see the way you stare at Vash all the time."

Roderich attempted to disagree, but a quick glare from Elizabeta made him submit. "Alright I'll admit I like Vash, but before you play matchmaker our situation isn't exactly that simple."

"That's what I'm talking about. I can help you get Vash, while you help me with dating who I like."

"Which is whom?"

"Gilbert," she said with a slight blush on her cheeks. "And before you say anything, you don't know him like I do. And if you still feel like saying anything I will take this umbrella and run away with it."

Roderich mumbled an ok and kept his thoughts of hatred towards the Prussian to himself. "I still don't see how we can help each other."

"Well first we can listen to each other's situations and come up with solutions."

"Alright. First answer me this. Why me?"

Elizabeta sighed. "You're the only one I trust that will keep my crush on Gilbert a secret from him until the right time. All my other friends would either tell him, or tell his friends which is practically the same thing." Elizabeta smiled at him. "Don't worry I'll keep your crush a secret as well."

Roderich mumbled a thanks and on a whim, decided to go along with Elizabeta's plan. There was no way she could help him, but he might be able to help her. True he hated Gilbert with a passion, but Elizabeta was his friend so he would help her out. "I guess I'll explain my situation first." Roderich took a deep breath before continuing. He had all rights to be nervous since he never told anybody this before. "When we were little we used to best friends. Then I did something completely unforgivable and we haven't talked since. Your turn."

"That doesn't give me much to go off of," she said.

Roderich shrugged. "I really don't feel comfortable talking about it. I never told anyone about this before."

Elizabeta huffed and decided to press him for information later. "For starters we were a lot closer when we were younger. I know certain events transpired that separated us, but I feel like we exchange pleasantries at most now. I also think that my presence annoys him."

Roderich rolled his eyes at that. Elizabeta whacked him and said, "It's true!"

"Then care to explain how the guy who once sent me a death threat because I was spending a bunch of time with you dislikes your presence now," he replied.

"Well one day I wore a new dress that I thought looked really good on me. At first he didn't say anything, and when I asked him about it he said I looked great, but I could tell he was unhappy."

"And because of that you think the guy doesn't like you," Roderich said with disbelief.

"It's not just that. Lately he's been avoiding my gaze and spending less time with me. I've barely even seen him this past week."

"I'm sure you're just misreading everything."

"Are you sure? Because I don't know what I would do if Gilbert hated me." Elizabeta halted and felt the tears starting to well up. She tried closing her eyes to stop them, but she only caused them to fall down her cheeks. Roderich pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her. Elizabeta gratefully took it and wiped her eyes.

"He doesn't hate you. I'm sure something was on his mind this week, so that's why he might have ignored you."

Elizabeta still had her doubts but she nodded anyways. "Well now that we heard each other's stories I guess we can start coming up with ways to solve our issues."

"I guess we can." But despite these words Roderich had anything but hope left in him.

They resumed walking but nothing else was said between them. They were too wrapped up in their own thoughts. They eventually came to Elizabeta's house when the silence was broken.

"Don't worry. I'll find a way for you to get together Vash." She gave his arm a reassuring squeeze and disappeared into her house.

Roderich slowly started walking to his house, and felt a tiny bit of hope in him. He knew Elizabeta would try her hardest to do what it was that she needed. Maybe, just maybe, he could be together with Vash like he always wanted.

* * *

Gilbert shuffled in his house, and let the door close behind him. He watched as water dripped from his hair and clothes onto the floor. Normally this would bother him and he would have cleaned up the mess right away. But right now he didn't have the energy to do anything. He didn't even feel like moving.

"Dry yourself off before you make a bigger mess." Gilbert felt a towel land on his head and looked up to see his brother Ludwig. He numbly took the towel and started to dry off his hair.

"You look like shit. What the hell happened to you." Blunt and straight to the point. Just like his brother. He opened his mouth and was about to explain his heartache, when another voice talked first.

"You can't say that! You have to be gentle about it."

Gilbert looked up and saw Feliciano standing there with his arms around Ludwig. The sight of them caused his heart to hurt even more. It wasn't fair that his brother got to be with someone and he didn't.

He gritted his teeth and walked up stairs to his bedroom, leaving puddles of water on the way. His brother yelled something at him, but he ignored it. He flopped down on his bed and groaned. He stayed motionless for a while, until he started shivering. Not wanting to chance a cold, he took of his wet clothes and reflexively folded them.

He tossed these in the hamper and pulled pjs out of his dresser. The only thing that he wanted to do was just sleep. He put them on and slinked over to his bed. He buried himself under the covers and hoped that when he woke up his heart would hurt less.

* * *

"Big brother, can you help me with my homework?"

Vash turned to his little sister, Lily, who held up her math book. He glanced at his watch and saw that he had a little time before he had to work. "Of course I will," he replied.

They sat down at the table and Vash tried to explain how to solve a math problem that Lily was stuck on. In the midst of this their drunken adoptive father walked into the dining room.

Vash glanced up and his eyes hardened as he tried to hide his disgust. The man probably started drinking the second he woke up. He moved closer to Lily in case he needed to protect her. He hadn't hurt either of them yet, but he wasn't taking any chances.

"Why are you here," the man slurred.

"I was just about to leave for work," Vash said. He was required to work part time if he wanted Lily to have food to eat. Greg, his adoptive father, paid the bills and such, but wouldn't pay for any necessities. He wasted all of his money on booze any ways. So he was required to take any work that he could as soon as Greg adopted them. Of course the man got money from "taking care of them" but he wasted that all on booze as well.

He got up and turned to Lily. "You remember what to do," he asked.

Lily nodded her head. Since he couldn't take Lily with him to his new job, he had her lock herself in her room just in case Greg decided to beat her. The man didn't have a past, but there was a couple of times Vash felt like Greg would try to beat the shit out of him. He wanted to leave this house so bad, but the adoption center wouldn't allow them since Greg hadn't actually done anything yet. They just put his suspicions down as him being over protective of his sister. Which he was, but he had to be because she was in real danger.

Vash grabbed his bag and walked out of the room, taking the longest path away from Greg. Once he walked out of the house he glanced around and started walking quickly towards his work place. The neighborhood they lived in wasn't the nicest, and while he could take care of himself he didn't want to take any chances.

He was halfway to his work place when his phone vibrated. He frantically took it out of his pocket, expecting a message from Lily. Seeing that it wasn't he sighed with relief, but he was slightly confused. The only reason he got a phone was in case Lily needed to contact him so no one else should have his number.

He looked at the text and it read:

_Hi! My name is Elizabeta and if you__'__re wondering how I got your number, your sister gave it to me. There is something very important that I want to discuss with you. How about we meet up somewhere during lunch time? Text me the place you want to meet at. _

The message baffled him, but he decided that he would respond to it tomorrow. He had to ask Lily who Elizabeta was and if she had any idea what she wanted.

* * *

**I've been meaning to write this fanfic for a while. Tell me what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

Gilbert had hidden himself under his covers, so it almost looked a little kid had faked still being in bed. However, Ludwig knew that his brother was still there. He hadn't actually moved since he had gotten home. At first he left him alone, thinking he would go back to his usual self after a while. But now Ludwig was very concerned. It usually didn't take long for Gilbert to bounce back. He didn't even come down for dinner, and since it was wurst night that made Ludwig very shocked.

"It's time to eat brother." Ludwig received no response from the bed. He sighed and walked over to the bed and nudged Gilbert with his knee. The mass on the bed moved slightly and emitted a groan.

"We have beer. The good stuff this time. Imported straight from Germany." Their was a slight movement, but not much of a reaction past that. At this point Ludwig was seriously concerned. What had upset his brother so much that that beer couldn't get him up? Sighing Ludwig tried something else. "If you don't get up me and Feliciano will eat all the wurst." Again, no response. "What's wrong," whispered Ludwig.

All of a sudden Gilbert pulled the covers off and asked, "If there was something that you loved that someone else had, would it be okay if you stole that thing if you loved it more?"

"Um…I guess if that thing was more important to you than the other person, then taking it from them wouldn't be that bad."

"What if that thing was actually was a person?"

Ludwig rubbed his forehead. "Why are we talking about stealing people?"

"I guess it really isn't stealing but more like making that person realize something that would make them spend less time with someone they are currently with."

"Well since you're only making them realize something and not forcing that person to stop hanging out with someone else it would be okay."

Gilbert smiled and jumped off the bed and ran to his white board. "Cool. Hey can you bring me up some dinner? I have something that is really important and I want to start working on it already."

Ludwig mumbled a sure and started going downstairs to get a plate of food for Gilbert.

"He's going to have one day of happiness with her before I make her realize she loves me more than him," Gilbert said with a smile.

* * *

It was the second class of the day and ten minutes into the class. Elizabeta glanced at Gilbert's seat again and saw that it was still empty. Now she was starting to get worried. Gilbert showing up late for class was a common occurrence. But history was his favorite class. He was never this late for it.

While trying not to be obvious about it, she slipped her phone out of her pocket and texted Gilbert.

_Where are you?_

5 minutes later and Gilbert still hadn't responded. That was really weird considering he always responded quickly. She then remembered he didn't look well yesterday. Thinking that he might be sick she texted Ludwig about where Gilbert was. It didn't take long till she got a response from him.

_I couldn__'__t get him out of bed this morning. I think he stayed up all night._

Elizabeta snorted. She should of guessed. He was probably still asleep which explained why he wouldn't have responded to the text yet. She pocketed her phone and attempted to pay attention to class when her phone went off again. 'I guess I won't be paying attention in class today' she thought as she pulled out her phone. She saw that she finally got a response from Vash about meeting up during lunch.

_Meet me in the garden during lunch time. Please don__'__t waste my time._

This confirmed the little that she could gain from others about Vash. He avoided unnecessary social contact, but was at least somewhat kind about it. Probably the only reason that he said yes was that she convinced Lily to put a good word in for her.

Elizabeta decided she needed to thank Lily, so she headed off to Lily's locker after class. She had to run since there wasn't that much time before classes started, and she didn't want to miss her. Luckily she was still at her locker getting books for her next class.

"Thanks for helping me out. Vash just texted me back and we're going to meet up during lunch time," said Elizabeta.

"I'm glad to hear that," said Lily. "I was afraid big brother would still not meet up with you. He can be so antisocial at times."

"Well I hope to change that."

"You still didn't explain why you need to talk to my brother."

"I'll explain after school." Class was about to start so they say goodbye to each other and went their separate ways. Elizabeta spent the time until lunch thinking of ways to phrase various arguments to convince Vash to give Roderich a second chance. She mentally cursed Roderich for not telling her what he did that was so bad. It would be a whole lot easier to fix the problem if she even knew what the problem was in the first place. She told him all that embarrassing stuff yesterday, so he could at least return the courtesy and tell her something as well. Hopefully Vash would be able to answer that question for her.

* * *

As soon as Roderich got home last night he started brainstorming ways he could help Elizabeta out with Gilbert. Sadly for him his options were limited. Most people associated with Gilbert hated him or would refuse to help him out. But he made a promise and he wasn't going to give up. That's why he was trying to work up his nerve and ask Gilbert's friends who sat a couple of seats away from him in math class.

The teacher hadn't shown up yet, so people were talking in class. Roderich turned to Antonio and Francis who were chatting with each other. It seemed luck was on his side today as Gilbert wasn't in his chair. Roderich took a deep breath before addressing them both.

"Sorry for bothering you, but there is something I would like to ask the both of you."

They both stopped talking to him and Francis raised his eyebrow. "I don't feel like helping you, and I'm pretty sure you knew that," said Francis.

"I know. The only reason I'm asking you two is because I'm trying to help someone out, and you two are the only ones that I could think of that can help. And before you ask, I can't tell you who I'm helping."

"So what do you need to know," asked Antonio. Francis looked at him while Antonio shrugged. "Why not help him? That person he is talking about may be a friend of ours."

Francis sighed and said, "Fine. Ask away."

Roderich squirmed a bit and wished that this question wasn't so embarrassing to ask. "Does Gilbert like any one?"

The question shocked both of them. "Why would you want to know that," asked Francis.

"I told you! Someone I know wants to know, so I'm doing them a favor," said Roderich. The situation that he was in felt so damn awkward. He wished they would just answer his question already. But of course instead of being helpful, they decided to torture him a little longer.

"Gilbert has an admirer," asked Antonio.

"Why would you think that," asked Austria. He started to panic a bit. If they already knew why he was asking questions it wouldn't take long before they figured out who he was helping out. Roderich decided continuing the conversation would be too much of a risk considering Elizabeta didn't want anybody finding out she liked Gilbert. "I'm sorry for taking up your time." He turned around when Francis called out to him.

"Wait," he said. Roderich turned slightly back towards them. "I honestly don't know if he likes anyone. Gilbert isn't the type to talk about his feelings too much. He could have feelings for someone and he wouldn't tell us."

Austria was a bit surprised at first that they were helping him out. He must have been easy to read because Francis said, "I have a weakness for matters of the heart. It wouldn't feel right not to help out."

Roderich thanked them. And at the last second added, "Please don't tell Gilbert I've been asking questions. The person I'm helping out would kill me if he found out." They both promised they wouldn't and Roderich started thinking over these new problems. He had a feeling Gilbert liked Elizabeta, but she would want more than just his feeling. He would need to get a conformation that he actually said that he liked her, or come up with another solution to get them together. There was only one more person that Roderich could think of that might know if Gilbert liked anyone, and that was his brother. Unfortunately he didn't share any classes with him, so he would have to ask during lunch. Luckily for him he was actually on good terms with Ludwig.

* * *

As soon as lunch started Elizabeta headed out toward the garden. She tried to rush as she wanted to spend the most amount of time with Vash as possible. She had a lot of questions that she needed answered and only a small amount of time to work with. As soon as she got into the garden she saw him near the one tree reading a book. He looked up and saw her and waved her over. She walked towards him and he said, "Lily said you had something important to talk to me about."

She nodded. "I want to ask you some questions about someone that you used to be close with. Well more like what your relationship was like with them."

At this Vash raised his eyebrow. "Who would you be talking about?"

"Roderich." When she said that name he paled a bit.

"I have nothing to talk to you about him." He moved to get up when she grabbed his arm.

"Yes you do. For starters you can tell me what happened between the two of you. From what I gather you two were pretty close."

Vash paused a bit before answering. "We were and than something happened between us. If you really want to know ask him."

"I tried but he wouldn't tell me."

"I have no right to tell you. If he doesn't want you to know I will respect his wishes." Elizabeta let go of his arm and he hurried back into the school. Elizabeta mused over this interesting conversation that she just had. While she didn't learn what happened between Vash and Roderich, she at least learned one interesting tidbit. Vash still cared for Roderich, at least enough to respect his wishes. It seemed that this wasn't such a hopeless case of love after all.

* * *

Roderich searched for a while before he spotted where Ludwig was sitting in the lunch room. He was sitting with Feliciano and Kiku near the end of the lunchroom. He walked over to them and was spotted by Feliciano.

"Ah Roderich! Want to eat lunch with us today," he asked.

"If you don't mind." Both Ludwig and Kiku said it wasn't a big deal. He sat across from Ludwig and was silent for a while before making his purpose clear. "I was wondering if you could help me with something Ludwig?"

"What is it," Ludwig asked.

"The question I'm going to ask may sound a bit weird, but I'm doing this for a friend so please bare with me. Do you know if Gilbert likes someone?"

Ludwig gave him an odd stare before answering. "I would have no idea. He doesn't talk to me about those kinds of things. How about his friends?"

Roderich sighed. "I already tried that approach."

"I can at least keep an eye out and try to find out if he does if you think that would be helpful."

Roderich nodded. "Thanks. Just try to keep this a secret from him."

"So who has a crush on Gilbert," asked Feliciano.

Hearing this made Roderich a tiny bit depressed. "Is it that obvious."

"Kinda," Feliciano replied. "Why else would you be asking about who he likes?"

Roderich was silent for a while. "Do you guys have any good tips on keeping a secret while still talking about?"

* * *

Roderich sighed as he walked out of the school doors. All his attempts to help Elizabeta failed. Thinking about it he wondered if he just made things worse. Roderich was starting to feel like there was nothing he could do to help out Elizabeta at all. He wasn't looking where he was going and bumped into someone. He started to apologize when he saw who it was Vash that he bumped into.

Vash was going to yell at whoever bumped into, but once he saw it was Roderich he closed his mouth. For a while neither of them talked. Then Roderich broke the silence. "So how have you been?"

Vash seemed a little taken back by the question. "I'm fine. I'm still with my sister if you're wondering."

"That's good." There was another few seconds of awkward silence. "Um...if you need anything just let me know."

Vash glowered at Roderich. "I don't need your damn help." He then pushed past Roderich and went into the school.

Roderich felt like such an idiot. What did he think that he could accomplish with that half-assed apology. It only made his situation even worse. He should have thrown away his pride and apologized for real. Now he was only in a worse situation than before.

* * *

It was Lily who came to Elizabeta at the end of the day. She went up to Elizabeta at her locker and said, "I don't have much time before I have to meet up with my brother to walk back home. I have a feeling that you want to keep what your up to a secret."

Elizabeta closed her locker door and turned to Lily. "That is right. If Vash found out it might ruin my plans." There was too many people around, so she beckoned Lily to follow her. They walked into an empty classroom and closed the door behind them. "First I have a question for you. How much do you know about your brother's relationship with Roderich."

Lily thought for a little bit. "I know Roderich, but I was never aware that he had any sort of relationship with my brother."

Elizabeta seemed a bit disappointed. "I guess you won't know the answer to that question either. Oh well, I can at least tell you what is going on. When Vash and Roderich were younger, they were good friends. Something happened to them so they grew apart. I'm trying to mend their relationship."

"I see. What question where you talking about?"

"Roderich won't tell me what happened to make them split apart. I tried asking your brother, but he refused to tell me as well. I was hoping you might know what happened."

"I'm sorry, but I don't know anything. It wasn't until now that I knew he used to be friends with Roderich." Lily hesitated a bit before continuing. "I feel like there is something you aren't telling me."

Elizabeta nodded. I wasn't going to tell you, but if you promise to keep it a secret I guess I can." Lily promised that she would. "Roderich has a crush on Vash, and I'm hoping to try and get them together."

Hearing this made Lily extremely happy. "I can't tell you how much this would help my brother. He doesn't have anyone close to him other than me. Having someone else important in his life would be a good thing for him. If you need any help don't hesitate to ask me."

"Thank you. But first thing I need to worry about is making them become friends again."

Elizabeta left soon after that and decided that she would stop by Gilbert's house on the way. The teacher announced that they would have a test soon, and it didn't hurt to scold him a bit for skipping class. When she got to the house she didn't even bother knocking on the door before entering. She found Gilbert where she expected him, in his room. He was staring at a white board with a serious expression. "Is this what you found so important that you decided to skip school," she asked.

Gilbert was startled and looked over to see Elizabeta standing in his doorway. He quickly covered up the board with a blanket while trying to act like he wasn't hiding anything. "Oh this! It's nothing. I just didn't want to go to school today." Elizabeta detected the lie in Gilbert's voice, but decided to let it slide. It wasn't really that important that she find out what was on the board anyway. It was probably just plans for another one of his stupid pranks.

"Anyway I came over to tell you that we'll have a test in history on Friday," she said.

"Is that all you came over to do?"

"No I just wanted to say hello. I missed you at school today." A slight smile appeared on Gilbert's face before he quickly hid it. "Anything interesting happen in school today?"

Elizabeta shook her head. She flopped down on Gilbert's bed and groaned.

"You tired?" Elizabeta nodded her head.

"I stayed up late last night."

Gilbert's stomach dropped. The only thing he could think of was Elizabeta staying up late, because she was with Roderich. "Why was that," he tried to ask coolly.

"I forgot that I had an essay due in english class today. I had to stay up all night to finish it."

Gilbert laughed. "Maybe next time you will help me with my homework now that you know how it feels."

Elizabeta rolled here eyes at that. "Unlike you I don't wait till the last second to my homework. My thoughts were occupied...with something else this week."

There it was again. Gilbert couldn't but feel his stomach squirm. How could he help it when she kept indirectly mentioning Roderich. He was tempted to ask her about Roderich, but he didn't want to hear about Roderich right now. Instead he changed the subject. "Oh, yeah. I think you were right about my brother and Feliciano."

Elizabeta smiled at this. "I told you. I'm always right at about this kind of stuff." She then frowned and said something that sounded like "most of the time" under her breath. She quickly changed her demeanor though. "Anyways , my parents won't be home today so I was wondering if I could stay for dinner tonight."

"Sure, but you have to make me a sandwich." Gilbert yelped out in pain as Elizabeta punched him in the arm.

"The only reason I didn't punch you harder is because I know you are just joking."

Gilbert rubbed his arm. "I don't want to be on the receiving end of your punch if that wasn't serious."

"Don't worry. You would have to do something extremely bad for me to punch you with all my strength."

"Is that a challenge," asked Gilbert with a huge grin on his face.

Elizabeta rolled her eyes. "Go ahead. And if you succeed I'll break one of your bones as a reward."

Gilbert pretended to think. "Let's see if this does the trick!" He lunged towards Elizabeta and started tickling her stomach. She squealed and pushed him away only to start attacking him with tickling as well. "I'm immune to your tickling," he yelled.

"We'll see about that," she said. She tore the socks off his feet and started tickling him there. Apparently Gilbert was actually ticklish on his feet as he started kicking in an attempt to get her to stop. Elizabeta persevered and grabbed his leg and continued to tickle him. It wasn't until Gilbert said she won that she stopped. She sat up and pushed her hair out of her face. "Once again I win the battle."

"But not the war," Gilbert cried. Elizabeta laughed. Gilbert was happy to see the reason she was smiling was because of him. He was also pleased to see that she wasn't wearing a dress today. He always thought she looked more beautiful in jeans and a plain t-shirt.

"When is your brother coming home," she asked.

Gilbert looked at the time. "He has football practice so he'll come home around six today."

"I guess we have time before we should start dinner. Want to play some video games for a while?"

"Sure. You can go down and pick out one...I have something I want to do."

"What? Hide your porn stash?" Despite saying that she complied and went downstairs first.

Once Gilbert was sure that she was out of site he took the blanket of the white board and crossed off the line that said "Make her realize I'm the one that makes her laugh" on the board. Gilbert took a step back and looked at his handiwork. "Step one of making her realize I deserve her more than Roderich completed."

* * *

**Sorry this took so long! I was busy with getting ready for college. Please review and thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

8

It has been a couple of days since Elizabeta had last talked to Vash. The conversation left a lot of questions unanswered and some interesting implications. She had been thinking about that conversation so much that she had forgotten about actually making up some plans to get Roderich with Vash. Hence the reason she was currently laying on her bed with a blank notebook.

Elizabeta wrote a couple things down, stared at it, crumpled up the paper, and threw it into the growing pile of paper. "Why does this have to be so difficult," she groaned. It wasn't that she couldn't come up with ideas, but all of her ideas weren't fitting with the situation in hand. She was trying to come up with an idea that would get Roderich and Vash to hang out with each other. This would normally seem like a simple plan, but she basically had to force the two to hang out. Vash wouldn't agree to it for obvious reasons, and Roderich won't agree to it for some unknown reasons. So she had to come up with something that would interest them both without arising suspicions of either them. But none of their interests matched up, so there was nothing that both of them would go to willingly.

Elizabeta pulled out her phone and texted Lily.

_Do you have any ideas? I don__'__t think any of mine will work out._

Lily replied with:

_I haven__'__t really thought of anything that might work out either._

Elizabeta's hopes were crushed. It seemed it might impossible to get them together.

_Oh well, do you still want to go shopping tomorrow?_

Just after she sent the text, an idea popped up in her head.

_I think I have an idea._

* * *

"Do you really need me to come shopping with you," asked Roderich.

"Of course. I need someone to carry all my bags for me" said Elizabeta.

"And what about Gilbert? He could carry more bags than me."

"He was busy today." A lie, but Elizabeta didn't think Gilbert would want to come with her anyways. She started looking at the faces around for Lily's. There was so many people around that she couldn't tell if Lily was here right now. She decided to head in the store that the were supposed to meet in anyways. She grabbed Roderich's arm and started pulling him towards a store. "I want to go in this one first."

"You don't need to hold my arm though."

"You'll get lost if I don't." But she let go anyways seeing that it was making Roderich uncomfortable. Looking around the store, she saw that Lily didn't get there yet. Walking over to the shirt section she pretended to browse, while keeping an eye on the door. A few minutes later she saw Lily and Vash walk into the shop. Elizabeta sighed in relief. Lily said she would try to get Vash to come, but couldn't promise anything. She was glad to see that Lily was able to bring him along.

Elizabeta waved to Lily who waved back. Roderich looked to see who she was waving to and saw Vash.

"What is he doing here," Roderich and Vash both asked as they saw each other.

Elizabeta and Lily acted all innocent. "I see you brought your brother to carry your bags," said Elizabeta.

" And I see you brought Roderich. It looks like we won't have to worry about carrying anything."

Roderich whispered in Elizabeta's ear, "I can't stay here."

"Yes you can," she whispered back. You wanted to be together with Vash and this is the solution I came up with."

Roderich was about to say something else, but he decided to not say anything. He looked up at Vash, but he couldn't even look at his face. Elizabeta was very confused by his actions since she was unaware of what happened between him and Vash recently.

Elizabeta linked arms with Lily and said, "Well since you guys don't want to be here, why don't we go somewhere else."

"How about we go roller skating then," asked Lily.

"Sounds like a great idea. What do you guys think?"

Vash and Roderich didn't know what to say, so just agreed with them. Elizabeta and Lily shared a knowing smile. "Then let's go." Elizabeta and Lily took the lead and were followed by Vash and Roderich. The two girls were chatting amiably while there was awkward silence behind them. The girls kept on sneaking glances behind them to notice the uncomfortable silence behind them. In fact on the whole trip to the roller skating rink a single word didn't pass between them.

"Why aren't they talking to each other," whispered Lily.

"I have no idea," Elizabeta whispered back. "I thought they would have at least said something to each other." When they were putting on their roller skates Elizabeta pulled Roderich to the side. "Why haven't you said anything?"

"Well...something happened not too long ago. I was talking with him earlier and I said something that made him angry."

"I don't care what you said to him. Just try and talk to him." At that Elizabeta pushed him towards Vash and walked away.

Roderich looked at Vash who looked away. Roderich contemplated for a little while before deciding on what to say. "About the day before...I'm sorry. I know that you don't like depending on people. I was just trying to be helpful."

"As I said I don't need your help,_ but_ I accept your apology."

Roderich smiled. It seemed like not everything was as bad as he thought between them. He went to go out on the rink and skated for a few seconds before falling backwards. Vash rushed forward just in time to catch Roderich before he fell.

"Why do you have to be so clumsy!"

"Thanks for catching me." Roderich stood up and straightened his glasses. He tried going forward but started to lose his balance right away. Vash reacted quickly and grabbed onto Roderich so he wouldn't fall again.

"Do you even know how to skate?"

Roderich blushed. "I know the basics behind it."

"Which translates to you know jackshit about skating." Vash held out his hand. "I guess that I have no choice but to teach you. Grab onto my hand."

Roderich's blush deepened. "What?"

"You'll use me as balance when we skate." Roderich looked at Vash and saw that he was blushing as well. "Well are you going to accept my help or not."

Roderich reached out to accept Vash's hand.

"Now move your feet side to side like I do." Vash pushed off and went to the left. Roderich tentatively followed and tried to copy Vash's movements. He started stumbling a bit, but started getting steadier as he went on. The girls saw them skating together and started smiling. It seemed like their plan was more of a success than they originally thought it would be.

* * *

They had been skating for a while when Roderich said, "I think I actually got the hang of it now."

"I guess you won't need me for balance anymore."

"I guess you're right." Roderich reluctantly let go of his hand. He let there fingers linger together for a while before finally pulling his hand back. "Can you stay near me, just in case that I fall again. I don't want to be stranded out here if I fall."

Vash hid his face behind his hair. "I guess I can stay." The two of them continued skating with each other around the rink. From a far Elizabeta and Lily occasionally glancing at them. They decided to stop skating for a while to get some pizza.

"I think they're doing well," said Lily.

"I agree. Although I wonder if Vash has a crush on Roderich as well."

"He did offer to help him skate which involved holding his hand, but if anything that means he doesn't hate Roderich."

"Well that is certainly a good sign. I just hope that he does have a crush on him. It will make things easier later."

"So what's the next step in the plan?"

Elizabeta picked up her drink and contemplated for a while. "Nothing. We wait and see what is going to happen between them. It will also be probably better if they get closer on their own."

"But what if they don't talk after this? I know my brother has a habit of not initiating conversation with other people."

"Then we'll just have to put them into situations where they can meet each other."

"Sounds like a plan!" All of a sudden they heard a crash coming from the rink. The girls got up to look at the rink. When they got there they saw Roderich and Vash in a pile. "Should we help them?"

Elizabeta nodded and they rolled out into the rink.

* * *

They ended up skating all evening, and the walk back to their houses was more comfortable than the walk to the rink. This time Roderich and Vash were talking, even if it was only small talk. They came to the end of the street where Roderich and Elizabeta lived, and they said their goodbyes to each other.

Elizabeta and Roderich walked together for a while before they got to her house. "So it seems like things are going well with you and Vash," she asked.

"If you mean causing the both of us to fall on the skating rink, then yes everything went well."

"Come on. At least you two are talking to each other now."

"I guess you're right. Tonight wasn't too bad, although I will be sore tomorrow."

"You're fault for falling at least ten times today. I knew you were clumsy, but still."

Roderich rolled his eyes. They were at Elizabeta's house so they stopped. "Well thanks, for tonight. I knew this was your plan and all."

"Welcome. Oh, yeah. I also gave him your number, so if you're lucky you might get a text soon." She waved bye and walked into her house. While walking back to his house, Roderich couldn't help but smile. Tonight just made him so happy. Now he needed to repay the favor and do something to help out Elizabeta with Gilbert.

* * *

"It seemed like you had fun today," said Lily.

"I guess," answered Vash.

Lily gave a knowing smile. "Oh, before I forget. This Friday I'm going to Elizabeta's house for a sleep-over."

Vash smiled at her and ruffled her hair. "Sounds good to me. This would be your first sleep over right?"

"Yep. There will be a bunch of her friends there as well so I hope I can become friends with them as well."

Suddenly a group of men of varying ethnicities appeared in the street. Vash recognized who they were and quickly moved in front of Lily. He hoped they wouldn't talk or recognize him but both hopes were futile.

"It's been a long time Vash," the leader of the group said.

Vash only replied with a terse nod. He grabbed Lily's hand and tried to continue walking, but the gang walked in front of them. Vash pulled Lily close to him and started looking for exits.

"You haven't come to us for work in a while. We could really use someone of your skill again."

"Sorry but I'm not interested."

The members of the gang started grinning creepily. "Who said we were giving you an option?"

"You might what to join us if you don't want anything to happen to your little sister," said another member of the gang.

Vash started grinding his teeth. Escape was no longer an option. They threatened his sister and the only way to deal with is to make sure they wouldn't try to threaten her ever again. Vash pulled a gun out of his pocket and handed it to a sister. "Take this and stay back. Only shoot when they go after you." He pulled a knife out of his pocket and started running towards them.

At first the gang was surprised by his sudden movement and he was able to break the wrist of the leader before they could even respond. One of the other gang members pulled a knife out and started going after Vash. Vash was quicker and was able to deflect the blow and break his arm. The rest of the group were uneasy and were staying back.

"The rest of you might want to leave us alone, or you might experience more than a few broken bones." One started running away, and then the rest joined them. Vash sighed with relief. He pocketed his knife and took the gun from Lily. "They shouldn't bother us anymore."

"What were they talking about," she asked.

Vash wasn't going to answer but Lily continued to glare at him so he bent under pressure. "Before I was able to get the job I have now, I worked for those guys as a sort of mercenary. They would send me to beat people up and I would get paid for it."

"So that's why you would come home with bruises sometimes." Vash nodded. "I'm glad that you don't do that anymore. You probably would have gotten hurt if you kept on doing that."

"Come on let's hurry back home." They went a bit farther down the block till they got to their house. They walked inside the house, and Greg was standing there in the hallway.

"Where were you guys," he yelled.

"We were out with out some friends," Vash replied. Greg was a few feet away, but he could still smell the booze on him.

"Well while you were away, I didn't have anyone to cook me dinner. The agreement was that you would do all the chores and that included cooking me dinner."

Vash started grinding his teeth. "It was only one day, he said. "We can make dinner right now if you want."

"That doesn't matter anymore," he roared. His voice startled them and Lily clung to Vash. "I had to order something which really pissed me off."

Vash started slowly putting his hand in his pocket and grasped his gun. Greg sighed. "I'll forgive you this one time. But don't let it ever happen again." Vash nodded and let go of the gun in his pocket. Greg lurched off and sat down on the couch in the living room. Vash and Lily quickly walked into their room and locked it.

"That was too close," said Vash.

"I'm afraid," said Lily.

Vash hugged here with one arm. "I know. I'm trying to find a solution." But the truth was that he didn't know what to do anymore. The foster home wouldn't believe him about how bad Greg was. And the last time they ran away, they got caught. He was afraid if they got caught again they would be punished. "Two more years and I'll be an adult legally. Then I can leave and take you with me." They only had to last till then.

* * *

After saying hi to her family in the living room, Elizabeta started walking up to her room. She had the whole plan of what she was going to do, which was quickly ruined when she opened up her bedroom door. There was Gilbert sitting on her bed, playing a game on her TV.

"What are you doing on my bed?"

"Um...playing video games until you got home. Which took you a really long time by the way. Where were you?"

"I was rollerskating with some friends. But that's not the point. My family would have said if you were in here."

"Well I kinda snuck through your window."

Elizabeta sighed. "Well since you're already here I guess you can stay."

Gilbert grinned. "Cool." Gilbert swore as something happened in the game and he started furiously pressing buttons.

"I'm going to take a shower. Just stay in here until I get out." Gilbert grunted something in response.

'Really' she thought. 'He really does have no sense of tact. He didn't even give me a warning text or anything.' She started taking a shower, and tried to calm her nerves. Seeing Gilbert in her room with no warning, flustered her a bit. But she mustn't get too excited over it. She didn't want to make Gilbert think something was up. She turned of the shower an started drying her self off. She put on her pajamas and walked back into her room while drying off her hair.

"What made you decide to come here so late anyway."

Gilbert glanced at her, blushed, and looked away. "I was just bored is all."

"Well, next time could you give me a slight warning. What if you came into my window and I was naked?"

"Is it a common occurrence for you to walk around naked? Then I should drop in unexpectedly more often." Gilbert then cried out in pain as a pillow hit him square in the face.

"Even think that again, and I will kill you."

Gilbert took the pillow of his head and tossed it back at Elizabeta. "Don't worry. I'm not that kind of guy."

Elizabeta hugged the pillow and sat down next to him. "I know. You're surprisingly nice when it comes to that kind of stuff."

"I'm a hidden gentleman." He picked up a spare controller and handed it to Elizabeta who accepted. "So who were you hanging out with today?"

"Lily, her big brother, and Roderich."

"Ah...I see." Thinking about Roderich spending an entire evening with Roderich, made it seem like a knife was stabbing his heart. Well, it was a good time to put step two into progress. "Are you doing anything tomorrow." Elizabeta shook her head. "Cool. Hang out with me tomorrow."

"Well that was pretty demanding. Where do you want to hang out tomorrow."

"It's a secret," Gilbert said with a smile.

"If it sucks I'm going to leave."

"It's impossible to suck when someone as awesome as me is making the plans."

Elizabeta just rolled her eyes and started playing the game along with Gilbert. They played together for a couple of hours before Elizabeta wanted to get some sleep. Since Gilbert entered through the window, he had to leave the same to avoid raising her parents suspicions.

"You sure I can't just leave through the door like a normal person," asked Gilbert.

"It's your fault for going in such a weird way. If you leave downstairs at such a late hour, my parents will get suspicious."

"There is nothing wrong with your family thinking that your doing something with someone as awesome as me."

Elizabeta started pushing Gilbert out of the window. "It took a very long time to clear up that misunderstanding from last time. It would like not to have to repeat that process again, thank you very much."

Gilbert was outside the window and said, "I'll pick you at one in the afternoon tomorrow, so you better be ready." With that Gilbert smiled at her and and climbed down the building. Elizabeta watched him go back to his house from her window sill. After she could no longer see him she laid down on her bed. She couldn't but help but feel happy right now. If she wanted to, she could have pretended that them hanging out tomorrow was actually a date. Of course she couldn't let this all go to her head, but maybe just maybe she could do something tomorrow. She checked the time and saw that it was too late to text Roderich. Tomorrow she would ask him about to make it clear that she likes Gilbert to Gilbert.

* * *

**Sorry for the long wait! As always review!**


	4. Chapter 4

10

When Elizabeta woke up in the morning she snuggled back under the covers. She then remembered that she was going to hang out with Gilbert this morning She yawned and rubbed her eyes. Elizabeta was tempted to go back to sleep, but since she didn't know how early Gilbert was going to pick her up, it was better to get up.

She got out of bed and went downstairs to get something to eat for breakfast. No one else was up since it was 8 in the morning on a Sunday. She yawned as she ate her cereal, cursing Gilbert for not giving her a clearer idea of when he was going to pick her up.

After eating she went upstairs to change into clothes. She started to put on just anything, but then realized what kind of situation she was going to be in. Normally she wouldn't have worried too much about what she was going to wear around Gilbert, but she felt like today was going to be a bit different. Still, having no idea what they would doing, she decided wearing a skirt might backfire on her. Plus when she checked the weather, it wasn't going to be exactly that warm. Eventually she wore a pair of skinny jeans with a green frilly top.

At this point, Gilbert still wasn't there. To kill time she started reading her new book. She was just about to get to the point where the heroine confessed her feelings, when she heard a knock on the door. Someone answered the door and quickly afterwards her mother knocked on the door.

"Gilbert is here. He said he's come to pick you up."

Elizabeta closed her book and went downstairs to go meet Gilbert. "So where are we going," she asked.

"You'll find out," he replied.

Elizabeta grabbed her jacket and put it on. Her mother was on the stairs and overhead what was going on and quickly made her own interpretation of what was going on.

"You're going out with Gilbert? Just the two of you?" Her mother got a huge grin on her face. "I hope the two of you have a great time together."

"It's not what you think mom." Elizabeta grabbed Gilbert's arm and said, "I'll be back later." She rushed out of the house with Gilbert behind her.

"Are you still not going to tell me where we're going yet," asked Elizabeta.

Gilbert shook his head. He looked around a saw a car a few feet away from them. "Looks my brother is here now."

"Why is your brother here?"

"We can't walk to where we are going. And since I can't drive yet, Ludwig will drive us to the place."

"Well at least it isn't your parents." They walked toward the car and Gilbert gave got confused when he saw who else was in the car.

They got in the back of the car and Gilbert asked, "What is Feliciano doing here?"

"He decided to visit when you started walking over here. When he found out that I was going to drive you, he wanted to come along as well."

"You guys got up real early in the morning to hang out with each other," said Feliciano. "You must have something really excited to do today. The only reason I'm up this early is because my older brother started yelling at someone on the phone. So where are we going?"

"I wouldn't know. Gilbert is keeping it a secret from me," said Elizabeta.

"Don't worry you'll like it," said Gilbert.

Ludwig started up the car and started driving. "I'll at least let you know that it won't take too long to get there," said Ludwig. "Why Gilbert has to keep it a secret is beyond me," he mumbled under his breath.

The rest of the trip was filled with Feliciano's chatter. Ludwig was right in saying that it wouldn't take long. As soon as Ludwig pulled the car in the parking lot, Elizabeta recognized where they were right away.

"I haven't been here in forever," she exclaimed.

Gilbert grinned. "I said you would like it. This place makes you feel nostalgic doesn't it?" The place that they had stopped at was an arcade that Elizabeta and Gilbert used to go to frequently as children. Now this wasn't just a dinky little arcade. This arcade had its own building and was devoted to updating the games so you could bet to see a new game every few months. Of course that doesn't mean that they got rid of the classic games.

Elizabeta's first thought of when she saw this place was how the atmosphere of a "date" was ruined. While it never was a date, she couldn't necessarily pretend to be going on a romantic outing while being constantly reminded of one's childhood. But that didn't make her sad. If anything it made her happier. Spending some time at a childhood haunt might bring back the closeness that they lost over the years.

Gilbert was thinking about how another part of his plan was falling into place. This time it make her realize that she has the most fun when she is around him. And what better way to do this then bring her to a place where they used to have so much fun when they were kids.

"Well what are you waiting for," Gilbert asked Elizabeta. "Those games aren't going to play themselves you know."

"I'm coming," she said. "I don't understand why this had to be a secret. It's not like you were taking me to somewhere secretive."

Gilbert shrugged his shoulders. "I wanted to see your reaction." They got out of the car and walked inside the building leaving Ludwig and Feliciano alone in the car.

"It won't be long now," said Feliciano.

"Not long till what," asked Ludwig.

"Till they become honest with their feelings with each other."

Ludwig raised an eyebrow. "I guess you could be right. Since you're already here, want to go watch a movie?"

"Sure."

* * *

As they walked into the arcade, the sense of nostalgia continued. Other than a few changes in the recent games, nothing much had changed.

"So where do you want to start," asked Gilbert.

Elizabeta thought for a few moments. "How about we start with the older games."

"Sounds good to me. Wait while I go get some tokens." Gilbert left and quickly came back with pockets full of tokens. "I bet I can get a higher score than you in donkey kong."

"You're on."

After that, at least for a while, they were concentrated on their rivalry. This wasn't uncommon, as this is what they mostly did when they went to the arcade as children. They started off with Donkey Kong, which Gilbert won, and it all ended with Dance Dance Revolution with Elizabeta pulling a massive victory.

Since it was lunchtime, they decided to take a break and eat. They ate the typical fare at the arcade, which was pizza. As they ate, they chat with each other.

"Are we going to play video games all day," asked Elizabeta.

"Nah. I figured we would stop here today. Then after that you can decide what to do."

"You're letting me decide?"

Gilbert shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly I don't know what we would do after this, and I don't think I can spend all day playing arcade games."

"I thought you were the type of person that would play video games all day unless someone stopped you."

"The games aren't the problem for me. It's all the screaming children."

At that exact moment a small pair of children decided that it was time to scream their heads off causing them to laugh. It was then decided that they would walk around town, till Ludwig found them to drive them back home. They walked for a while before eventually settling down on a park bench.

They were talking and eventually Elizabeta's sleeping party came up. She started talking about how Lily was such a nice girl and that she was going to invite her. Elizabeta pondered telling Gilbert about her plans with Roderich. She then dismissed the thought from her mind. She thought Gilbert would only make fun of Roderich and eventually might even ruin the plans.

It was then Elizabeta noticed someone out of the corner of her eye. "Oh shit it's Stacy!" She grabbed Gilbert's hand and started pulling him towards a group of trees despite his protests. She pushed him into the cover of the trees and quickly followed him.

"What is going on," asked Gilbert.

She shushed him. "I saw Stacy walking towards us. I don't want to have to deal with her today so I decided we might at least hide. Luckily she didn't see us yet."

As Stacy and her companion started walking closer, Elizabeta crouched down and Gilbert followed suit. It was then that Gilbert noticed how close he was to Elizabeta. As he stared at her profile, a sudden urge to kiss her came onto him. While he wanted nothing more than to do that, he had to resist.

Eventually Stacy passed by and Elizabeta let out a sigh. She turned to talk to Gilbert when she noticed the way he was looking at her. Gilbert quickly looked away, but Elizabeta saw enough to interpret what it meant. Her heart started to beat faster when she thought of what that look could have possibly meant.

"Stacy is long gone so we can leave now," she managed to say. Gilbert gave a quick nod and they left the grove. Elizabeta was struggling of thinking of something to say, but all she could think of was how fast her heart was beating. She decided to push away her thoughts of his look for the moment. Now wasn't the time to think about that. However, her heart wouldn't stop beating.

It was Gilbert who spoke next. "You want to hide inside and go watch a movie," he asked.

Elizabeta regained some of her composure and agreed with him. They walked to the nearby theater. Since it was a small theater, it was only showing one movie at the time. While they both have seen Gremlins a bunch before, they decided it was better than waiting outside and possibly running into Stacy again.

Once they got settled into the seats with their popcorn and drinks, Gilbert realized what kind of situation they were in. This was the perfect situation for him to try and maybe put the next step of his plan into action. This was slightly flirting with her. Not that much but just to see what her reactions would be. He was about to do the cliche yawn and put his arm behind her, but caught himself before doing it. While something like that worked in the movies, he wasn't aware of how well it would work in real life. Would it cause a girl to roll her eyes in how cliche he was or grin with how romantic he was being.

The truth was that Gilbert never flirted with anyone before. Ever since he was little, the only person that he had ever been interested in was Elizabeta. The movie had already started, and Gilbert still hadn't decided on what to do. He was so worried that he was going to mess up flirting, that the movie had ended before he had even tempted anything. After they left the theater Gilbert noticed that Ludwig had texted them that it was time to go home.

During the ride back, both Gilbert and Elizabeta were absorbed in thought. Gilbert was kicking himself for not doing anything, and Elizabeta was busy pondering the meaning of the look he gave her.

* * *

Later that night, when Elizabeta was laying in bed, all she could think of was the way that Gilbert had looked at her. She kept on analyzing the look and trying to find possible meanings in it. Of course she thought of how the look meant he liked her. But she didn't want to believe this and end up being wrong. Bringing up her hopes and then having them smashed would only worsen her current situation.

She tried thinking of her slumber party that was coming up, but she couldn't stop thinking about it. The moment kept on playing in her head like a broken record player.

* * *

The next week passed uneventfully. With the big test that was coming up on Thursday, neither Elizabeta or Roderich had any time to think about helping each other out. Gilbert had decided to wait a while before pulling off the next part of his plan since he didn't want to rush the process. Vash hadn't contacted Roderich yet out of his own free will, but Elizabeta hoped that it wouldn't take too long before that happened.

Friday came quickly along with Elizabeta's slumber party. The people invited to the sleeping party were Lily, Natalia, and Belle. Usually it would just be Natalia and Belle, but Elizabeta decided Lily would be a good inclusion to their trio.

When Friday rolled around Lily was excited to go to the slumber party. She had never gone to one before, so she was a little nervous but also excited. After school was finished on Friday, Lily headed straight towards Elizabeta's place. She took everything that she would need with her to school so she didn't have to go home. There was no guarantee that Greg would remember that he had already agreed that she could go to the slumber party.

Since Lily would be going straight to Elizabeta's house, they agreed to meet near the entrance of the school so they could walk home together. Lily went there after saying goodbye to her brother and saw that Elizabeta was already waiting for her there. They then started walking to Elizabeta's home.

"Do you know Belle and Natalia," asked Elizabeta.

Lily shook her head in response.

"Belle is a sweet girl. I think you two should get along. Natalia has a prickly nature at first. She'll be really cold and might be outright mean sometimes. Once she warms up to someone she becomes friendly and fiercely protective. So no matter what she says don't assume she hates you."

"So what should I do around her?"

"Just be yourself and don't take anything she says to heart. Hopefully it won't take too long for her to warm up to you."

Lily nodded. When they got to Elizabeta's house, Elizabeta introduced Lily to her parents. They then went upstairs to Elizabeta's room. It wasn't much longer till Belle arrived.

When Lily saw Belle, she got the impression that was a nice person like Elizabeta said.

"Hey Elizabeta," said Belle. She saw Lily on the stairs and gave her a small wave. "You must be Lily! It's nice to meet you!"

Lily said it was nice to meet her as well.

Belle held up a bag that she brought with her. "I brought some chocolate with me."

Elizabeta took the bag and thanked her. It was soon after that that Natalia showed up. Unlike Belle, she didn't say anything when she got walked inside. She just greeted Elizabeta with a brief nod and looked at Lily.

"This is Lily. The girl that I was talking about earlier," said Elizabeta.

"Hello," mumbled Natalia. After this she just walked past Lily and went up into Elizabeta's room.

Elizabeta shrugged at Lily. "Well at least she said hi."

They all walked into Elizabeta's room and got settled. "My parents are ordering pizza later around 6. Around 11 we should at least try to be quiet or they might try to kill me tomorrow. So what do you guys want to do first," Elizabeta asked.

Belle got a sly smile on her face. "How about you tell me what's been going on between you and Gilbert recently," she said.

Elizabeta immediately blushed. "Nothing is going on between us," she stammered out.

"Sure. Then explain why Roderich is asking people if Gilbert has a crush on anybody?"

"Roderich was doing what? He could have at least tried to be more subtle about it," said Elizabeta.

"So you do like him!"

"I didn't say that."

"There's no need to hide it anymore. It's obvious that you like him!"

"Whose Gilbert," asked Lily.

"Elizabeta's childhood friend," said Belle. "You've probably seen him around school since he's kind of hard to miss. He has white hair, red eyes, and has a really loud personality."

"I think I've seen him before."

"All of you have to promise me that you won't tell anybody this," said Elizabeta.

Belle shrugged her shoulders. "Fine. But why does it matter if it's a secret. You guys can't get together if you're afraid to tell him your feelings."

"If this was any other guy I would totally tell him my feelings. I'm afraid if I tell him and he doesn't return my feelings, we will stop being friends," said Elizabeta. "I also don't need any help," she added.

"Ah yes, I can already tell that Roderich is such a valuable asset to you," said Belle sarcastically.

"I can help you out," said Natalia.

"No offense Natalia, but I don't think your approach to guys should be a role model."

Natalia shrugged. "I think my method works perfectly fine."

"Why don't we talk about something else," said Elizabeta.

"Sure," said Belle. "How about you tell us something about yourself," she said to Lily.

"I don't really know what to say."

"Just some basic things like your interests and what not," said Belle.

"Um...I guess I really like pretty things, but I don't know if that's an interest."

"Family," asked Belle.

"I have my big brother Vash," said Lily.

"Vash is your brother," said Natalia in surprise.

"You don't look much like your brother," said Belle.

"I'm not his sister by blood," said Lily. "When I was a little girl I was put in the same foster family as him. Ever since then we've stuck together and he's become the closest thing I have to a family."

"Family is important no matter if it's blood or not," said Natalia. "Take for instance my brother and sister. I would do anything for them and they would do the same."

Lily nodded. She felt the exact same way. Vash was the world to her and she knew that he felt the same way.

"Anyway, who's game for some super smash bros," asked Elizabeta.

"Yes. I will crush all you once again," said Natalia.

Belle sighed. "It's no fun when you win all the time."

"This time we have Lily playing," said Elizabeta. "This might be the end of Natalia's reign of terror."

As it happened, Lily had a knack for playing games. Well at least enough skill that with the joined efforts of Belle and Elizabeta they were finally able to defeat Natalia.

After this Belle decided that it would be a good idea if they painted they each other's nails. While Belle was painting Lily's nails she asked, "So what is it like having Vash for a big brother? I imagine that he can be scary sometimes."

"Not really. He's always been very kind towards me. Though I do get worried about him sometimes."

"About what?"

Lily paused a bit before continuing. "I think that sometimes my brother is overworking himself. When he isn't at his part time job, he's doing homework. I barely see him relax now a days."

"I know how you feel," said Belle. "My brother is only worried about money. He graduated a while back and now he is so concentrated on his job that he rarely comes to visit us anymore. Every time that I try to bring up the subject he starts talking about something else."

"Well at least your brother isn't avoiding you specifically. He rarely stays in the same room as me anymore," said Natalia.

"That's because you freak him out sometimes," said Elizabeta.

Natalia shrugged. "Maybe I wouldn't seem so clingy if he would just hang out with me every once in a while."

"I wish brother would be able to spend more time with me," said Lily.

"How about trying to get him to hang out with you more. He doesn't have to work all the time," said Belle.

"That sounds like a good idea," Lily lied. In reality this wasn't much of a possibility. They needed the money since Greg didn't support them much. Of course she offered to get a part time job as well. But Vash was against that since Lily wasn't old enough and he thought he could handle everything. Lily knew that age wasn't an issue since he was able to get a job when he was her age. But Lily knew that they're would be no arguing with Vash.

Natalia might of sensed Lily's unease, because she quickly changed the subject. Lily silently thanked Natalia.

Later when they were going to sleep, Natalia and Lily where near each other. "It'll get better one day," whispered Natalia.

"What do you mean," asked Lily.

"With your brother. My family was in a bad situation not too long ago."

"Where you...in the foster system?"

Natalia nodded. "Our parents died when we were kids. For a while my older sister tried to take care of us. Then someone informed the authorities and we had to go to the orphanage. Somehow she managed to keep us together for a long time. Then one time we got separated when we were adopted. For me that was a very hard time for me. Growing up they were all that I had, so when I wasn't near them anymore I got depressed."

"What happened?"

"My brother ran away and managed to find us. After that they had no choice put to make sure we were together. We would do whatever it took to make sure that we would always be together. Now we're adopted by an old couple who thought it wouldn't be right to separate us."

"That's sounds nice."

"So keep your chin up. One day it will all work out. You'll see."

* * *

The next morning, everyone was leaving to go back to their homes. As Natalia was leaving she waved and said, "See you at school," to Lily.

"She likes you," said Elizabeta.

"I like her as well as well," said Lily. She then saw what time it was and decided she needed to go home. She picked up her bags and said, "Thank you for having me over."

"No problem. It was fun with you here. You should definitely come over more often."

She waved goodbye to Elizabeta and hoped that she would invite her again since she had fun.

When Lily got home she ran into her foster father. The moment she walked in she could tell something was wrong. She looked around for Vash, but then remembered that he was at work.

"You think you can spend the night somewhere else without my permission," asked Greg.

"It was only one night. I was just with a friend. It's not that big of a deal."

"Not that big of a deal! Ever since you guys have come here I have laid down some ground rules. One of them was you must ask my permission to go anywhere ever since you two tried running off!"

"But I did ask you, you just don't remember!"

"You calling me an idiot!"

"No I was just-" Her words were cut off when Greg threw his beer can at her head. Fear coursed through her body and she ran into her room and locked the door as Greg came after her. He started banging on the door. Lily didn't know how much longer the door would last, so she went towards the window. Much to her surprise, the window was nailed down.

She pulled out her phone and sent a text to Vash telling him she needed help. On second thought she sent one to Elizabeta as well. The banging wouldn't stop and only got louder. She quickly ran into the closet and shut the door. She could only hope that someone would come before Greg managed to break down the door.

* * *

**A/N: Really sorry for the long wait! I got busy with school! Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

Vash had just lifted up the hood of the car he was fixing, when he felt the buzz in his pocket. It took him a while before he registered the vibration in his pocket as his phone. He immediately excused himself and pulled out his phone. He opened it and saw that he got a text from Lily. He started reading it and drew a sharp breath. He slammed his phone shut and yelled that he had to leave and was sorry. As he bolted out of the car shop, it felt like his heart was going to burst. He had never been more scared in his life and he was he even more scared that he would be too late.

He fumbled with his phone and speed dialed Lily's number. She picked up on the second ring and he said, "Are you alright!" All he got in response was static and a what sounded like Lily's garbled voice.

Vash swore as he remembered that the reception sometimes sucked in certain places in the house. "I'm on my way," he yelled into the phone hoping she could hear him. The phone call ended then and he hoped that Lily had finally lost the signal and that was all that happened.

* * *

Elizabeta was putting her room back into order, when her phone went off. She was slightly annoyed that she was being interrupted but decided to look at the text anyways. As she started reading the text, she felt her blood chill. Her mind raced as she tried to remember where Lily lived. She had never been there, but Lily told here where her house was. She would just have to try her luck she decided as she started running out of the house. She managed to put her shoes on, and then bolted out of there leaving a confused family behind her. She was so worried that she would wouldn't find the house in time to do anything. As the fear in her increased, she started running faster than she think she had ever in her life

* * *

Elizabeta was getting near the street where Lily lived when she almost ran into Vash. He barely slowed down when he saw her and that was only to tell her to hurry up. She nodded, but he didn't see as his eyes were dead straight on his house. Luckily the house was too far away, as she was starting to loose her stamina for running about a 10 blocks straight.

Vash slammed open the door and he pulled the gun out of his pocket. Elizabeta was a bit shocked that he had a gun on him, but ignored it as she heard the splintering of a door and Lily's scream. Vash didn't hesitate as he quickly ran to the room where the sound came from and Elizabeta followed suit. When they got to the room she saw the man presumed to be their stepdad. He had his fist raised as he was prepared to punch Lily.

Vash raised his gun and was aiming at his stepfather. Elizabeta quickly realized with horror that he was planning on shooting Greg. "Vash NO!" She grabbed onto his arm right before Vash was about to pull the trigger and caused him to pause. Greg heard her and turned around to see them.

His eyes fell upon the gun in Vash's hand and he quickly let go of Lily. Lily took the chance to run towards her brother and hug him. "Don't shoot him," she pleaded. "He didn't hurt me and if you shoot him you'll have to go to jail and I won't be able to see you."

Vash listened to his sister as he put the safety back on and pocketed the gun. "We need to get out of here," he said and then started pulling on Lily's hand. Lily followed him and Elizabeta was on their heels.

Once they were outside Vash turned to Elizabeta. "Take us to your place. It's no longer safe here."

"Roderich's place is closer. We'll go there instead."

Vash was about to protest, but decided against it. Elizabeta's logic was sound and the sooner Lily got somewhere same the better. He could feel her shaking beside him.

"Lead the way," he said. Elizabeta nodded and they started quickly walking away as Elizabeta called Roderich to explain the situation briefly so they wouldn't catch him off guard.

* * *

When they arrived at Roderich's house, he was waiting for them. He opened up the door and asked, "Is everyone ok?"

"Everyone is fine," said Elizabeta.

"Well when you said something happened so that Lily and Vash had to come over to my house I got concerned."

"I'll explain everything after we get settled. Lily should probably relax a bit before I try to explain everything."

A few minutes after Lily was given some hot cocoa and a thermal blanket, Elizabeta explained everything to Roderich while they all sat in the living room. He took it all in and was silently thinking for a while. "Do you guys have any place to stay," Roderich asked Lily and Vash.

"We'll manage," Vash said curtly.

Roderich furrowed his eyebrows. "That isn't what I asked."

"We'll be fine. We can just go back to the orphanage. I'm sure they wouldn't let Greg keep us after what he almost did to Lily."

"And risked being separated again?" Vash flinched at this and Elizabeta grew confused. She realized there was something going on that she wasn't informed about. She decided she would question them later, but there was a more important matter at hand.

Roderich stared at Vash, and paused a bit before continuing speaking. "You could stay here."

"No thank you," yelled Vash.

"You can't return to Greg's house, and if you go back to the orphanage you could get in trouble if they question Greg and he tells them about the gun."

"How did you know about the gun!"

"Because I know you and what you would do if Lily was in danger." Roderich sighed and rubbed his brow. He had to think of a way to convince Vash to stay with him for his own safety. "Listen, you don't have to stay for too long. Just long enough so that you can figure out where you're going to go next. It will be no problem on my end since my parents will be out traveling for a few months."

"I think it's a good idea brother," said Lily.

Vash looked out his sister and let out a sigh showing that he had given in. "Fine. We'll stay here for a while, but only till I figure out something."

"Agreed," said Roderich. After this he showed them to what their rooms would be, a extra couple of guest rooms. He then explained to the servants what the situation was and got promises from them not to tell his parents what was going on. It wasn't that he didn't think they would let Vash and Lily stay, but that they would call the authorities after what happened.

Elizabeta was in the living room chatting away with Lily as they watched TV in order to try and keep her mind off things. During this Roderich and Vash were alone having a talk. "Do you really resent me that much," asked Roderich.

"What are you talking about," asked Vash.

"I'm aware that the only reason you accepted my proposal was because you were concerned about Lily. If it wasn't for Lily you would have rather slept in the gutter than spend a night under my roof.

Vash scoffed but didn't deny anything. Roderich stared at Vash with a hurt expression on his face. "How many times do I have to apologize before you stop hating me?"

"Apologizing doesn't change what you did!"

"Everything worked out okay in the end!"

"But you still betrayed me!" Vash shouted the last sentence enough to scare Roderich. Roderich was silent and looked like he was going to cry.

"I know you won't accept it, but I'll apologize anyways. I'm sorry for-"

Vash cut him off. "Save your breath. I'll never forgive you so there's no point in trying to apologize." After saying that Vash walked into the living room to join the girls.

Roderich was standing there stunned and his eyes started to water. As a tear rolled down his cheek he took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. He started taking deep breathes in an attempt to relax himself. He told himself he wouldn't cry about what happened between the two of them anymore, but it seemed that he couldn't stop himself. But hearing what he suspected all along from Vash's mouth brought him to tears. _I__'__m really weak_ he thought to himself

After taking a few more deep breaths he was finally calm enough to have stopped crying. He dried off his face, and put his glasses back on. He then went to the living room to check up on Lily from the doorway. She didn't seem too shaken up from what he could see, but he wouldn't be surprised if Lily was hiding it in order not to make Vash worry.

"Is anyone hungry," asked Roderich.

"A bit," said Lily.

"Is pizza fine? I already sent the cook home for the night."

"Pizza is fine," said Lily.

* * *

After eating pizza Elizabeta went home since she didn't want to worry her parents too much. She wanted to stay longer so she could comfort Lily, but she knew it was better to leave Vash to do it.

It wasn't much longer till Lily started nodding off, exhausted from the day's events. They convinced her to go to bed leaving Vash and Roderich alone again. Once more Roderich tried to talk to Vash, but he ignored him once again.

This made Roderich sad again, but he tried to have some hope. After all he was going to be spending more time with Vash and hopefully he could get closer. He only hoped he wouldn't run out of time.

* * *

Later that night when Vash was laying in his bed his door opened. He automatically tensed up and was prepared to attack his intruder, but then saw it was Lily. "I couldn't sleep," she whispered.

Vash motioned for her to come towards him. She went under the covers and cuddled with him. He kissed her on the forehead, and pulled her close. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight big brother."

* * *

It was decided the next day that Lily and Vash would stay home from school. Roderich wanted to stay home with them as well, but he figured Vash wouldn't appreciate that. Anyways he needed to talk with Elizabeta about various things alone.

During lunch Elizabeta and Roderich sat together to talk. "You want to start," asked Elizabeta.

"Sure," said Roderich. "What should we do about Greg. He might start looking for them."

"I was thinking about that last night. He is their legal guardian and he could try to make them come back home if he wants. But if he does that then they can go to the police. Of course the problem with that is they might not believe us since we didn't go to the police right away. Plus he might blab about the gun. Of course he doesn't know where they're staying so it will make it harder for him."

"I'm guessing that's a long winded way of saying you don't know what to do?"

"Hey I'm not a miracle worker. I'm was going to do a little research later to see if we can do anything legal wise."

"Sounds good to me. Even if he does end up at my house I'll just deny that I even know who they are."

Elizabeta slammed her palm into her forehead. "I'm an idiot!" Roderich gave her a confused look. "He might not be able to find them at your house, but he knows where they go to school. He could go to the school and take them out of class, or follow them back. He might try to bully them into coming back so he can still get the money."

"Then they shouldn't go to school."

"Are you an idiot? If they miss too much school, they might send letters home or contact their adopted father. If they ever find out that they aren't home then they might start asking questions. They would definitely be forced to go back to the orphanage if the school finds out what happens."

"And we wouldn't want that happening again," mumbled Roderich.

Elizabeta missed what Roderich said and frowned. He was keeping too many secrets from her and she didn't like it one bit. She was about to snap at him, but then changed her mind. There were more important issues that had to be solved. "How about till we make sure Lily and Vash aren't by themselves when they go to school or leave. That will mean one of us will have to escort them."

"I get Lily, but I think Vash will be fine on his own."

"Oh yes so next time they see their adopted father they can shoot him. We need to keep an eye on him so he doesn't do anything stupid. Hopefully if one of us is there then we will scare Greg off."

"I'll tell Vash and Lily about the plan then." As an after thought Roderich added, "You can come by the house anytime you want as well."

Elizabeta sighed. "You're going to have to overcome your awkwardness with Vash soon."

Roderich lowered his eyes. Yes it was true that he was awkward around Vash. He couldn't help since every thing he said seemed to make Vash angrier with him. He didn't know what to do around him. He wanted to apologize for what he did to him, but Vash would stop him each time. Roderich then explained what happened between him and Vash in the kitchen yesterday.

"I'm aware that something bad happened between you two, so he has a right to be mad but I have a feeling that something else is going on here."

"What is it?"

"You're going to have to figure that out yourself. If you're going to become friends again, you're going to have to consider his feelings and react based on that."

* * *

After school ended, Roderich was left alone with his thoughts. Elizabeta said she might come over after dinner since she had to help her mom with something. So Roderich was stuck with his thoughts and what Elizabeta had told him.

When he got back home, he was greeted by Lily. "Welcome back!"

Roderich smiled at her. "Where's your brother?"

"At work."

Roderich frowned. "Doesn't he know that's dangerous since Greg knows where he works? Plus you don't have to worry about money when you're staying with me."

"I told brother that, but he wouldn't listen to me. Plus Greg doesn't know where he works just that he works somewhere."

Roderich sighed. He wanted to go and get Vash, but he also didn't know where he worked. He would ask Lily but he had a feeling Vash asked her not to.

"Well what do you want for dinner?"

"I don't know."

"Well why don't we go ask the cook and see what sort of ideas he has."

* * *

Roderich was waiting right next to the door when Vash came back.

"What are you doing," asked Vash a little disgruntled.

"Waiting for you. Elizabeta and I have been discussing a couple things that I want to tell you."

Vash nodded in resignment. "Let's talk about this in my room."

Vash went off and was quietly followed by Roderich. Once the door was shut Vash turned towards Roderich and crossed his arms. "Well spit it out."

"We both figured it would be a good idea if you two went to school since they might alert Greg if you've been missing."

Vash nodded seeing how this could end up badly.

"We also agreed that the two of you must be around one of us." Roderich cut of Vash before he could protest. "While we both know you're capable of defending yourself we don't want you to pull a gun out on Greg again."

"Fine," Vash grumbled. Roderich knew he wasn't happy about it but at least he agreed to it.

"Other than that, we're still figuring out what to do. Elizabeta said she would do some research and see what we could do legally that could still keep the two of you together."

"Alright." Vash glared at Roderich. "If that's all you have to say you can get out now."

Roderich steeled himself for what was going to come next. "I'm not done with you yet. We need to talk about what happened all those years ago."

"I don't need to hear another apology from you!"

"I'm not apologizing this time. I'm going to explain why I did what I did back then."

The atmosphere in the room was tense, but that it what tended to happen when you drudged up old memories that some people rather forget than remember.

* * *

Roderich and Vash were only kids when they first met. At that time Vash and Lily were orphans on the run. Vash and Lily would play at a playground every day despite their situation. All the other kids avoided the odd duo, after all not recognizing them and the two siblings would keep to themselves. And this playground is where Vash and Roderich met.

Roderich's family had just moved to the town, so he had no friends. He automatically gave off an aura that made him seem superior and this made the other kids bully him. Nothing serious, but enough to make Roderich cry every time. One day he was being bullied again. The other kids weren't letting him use the slide. Vash saw this and stood up for him.

"Let him use the slide," said Vash.

The other kids turned to Vash in surprise. "Why should we," one of them asked.

"Because it's not nice," said Vash.

"Make us," said another.

That's when Vash pushed the the one who was guarding the entrance to the slide.

"Let him play!" Vash glared at the other boys and they got wary and slinked away. Roderich was still crying when Vash took his hand. "It's okay. They're gone now so you can play."

Roderich's tears started to dry up. "Would you play with me," asked Roderich.

Vash nodded.

After that Vash and Roderich would play together at the playground with each other. They soon became best friends and played at the playground with each other every day. Roderich would always leave with his parents first so he didn't know. That Vash and Lily didn't have parents that would pick them up every day. Roderich never suspected that Vash and Lily were runaway orphans.

Vash and Lily were in a orphanage at a very young age. Over the time they had become close at the orphanage, just like brother and sister. One day Vash and Lily were going to be adopted, but by different parents. Not being able to bare being apart, they decided that they would run away.

They arrived at the town they were currently living at and would sleep in the alleyways and scavenge for food. Vash didn't have a plan of what he was going to do, but he was afraid of being separated from his only family so he decided to keep up this charade for as long as possible.

Visiting the park was one of the high moments of his life during this time. Hanging out with Roderich at the park was one of the few things that made him happy. For a moment he could forget about his empty stomach and the fact that he didn't have a roof over his head. Just being around Roderich made him happy.

To Roderich, this was also the highlight of his day. Since the other kids wouldn't talk to him, Vash was his only friend. His parents were quick to pick up on this and would invite the boy and his sister to their house. After a few weeks of the boy hanging out with their son, they noticed a strange thing. They never saw Vash's parents. He would always leave on his own and when they asked him about his parents, he would always change the subject. He even refused the rides they would offer them to their house.

That's when they started bugging Roderich to tell them about Vash's parents. They were worried that Vash was in a bad situation and wondered if they needed to take action to get them out of it. Of course Roderich learned the truth about Vash ad Lily being runaway orphans. They were playing one day on the playground when Vash told him.

"So where do you live," asked Roderich as they were playing in the sand box.

Vash thought for a few seconds before responding. "It's a secret so you have to promise not to tell anyone. Roderich nodded his head.

"Pinky promise," Roderich said while holding out his pinky finger. Vash intertwined their pinky fingers and they made the promise.

"I don't live anywhere," said Vash.

"How is that possible?"

"Lily and I are runaways!"

"Why did you run away," asked Roderich. The young Roderich was completely captivated by what Vash was telling to him. To him it seemed so exciting running away. However he he didn't know the drawbacks that Vash and Lily were experiencing.

"They were going to separate us and I didn't want that to happen. So we decided to run away together."

"You're so brave!"

Vash glowed under the praise. For some odd reason hearing that come out of Roderich's mouth made him very happy. He wished he could play with Roderich forever. Little did he know that his happy moments with him would end all too soon.

Roderich didn't want to tell his parents about the truth behind Vash's parents. This was the first promise he ever made with someone and he was determined to keep it. But then his parents switched tactics. They tried to scare the truth out of Roderich. They didn't know what was going on, but they were convinced it was bad. So they started saying things like if they didn't tell them about Vash's parents he might get hurt or something else bad might happen to them. Out of fear for his best friend, he finally cracked under pressure.

His parents were horrified to say the least when they found about the truth. They quickly called child services and the next day at the playground they were picked up.

When Vash found out who they were he tried to run away, but they already had Lily so he quickly gave up the idea. When he saw the child service people talk to Roderich's parents he knew what had happened.

Vash started screaming, "YOU BROKE OUR PROMISE! I HATE YOU!" Vash continued to scream as the child service people dragged him along.

When Roderich heard these words he started crying so hard he couldn't come up with a response. All he could do was bawl his eyes out as his only friend was screaming that he hated him.

Time passed and Vash and Lily were put into a nearby orphanage. Later Greg took the two of them in exchange for money from the government. At first glance Greg was a great guy and Vash and Lily had an okay life. They as time went on, Greg's drinking got worse and their current situation arose.

And even though all these years passed, neither of them forgot the pain of what happened them to that day long ago. Slowly the good memories were forgotten, but Roderich never truly forgot. Those memories were very precious to him and he wanted to make Vash remember the good times as much as he remembered the bad. And that was his objective for his chat with Vash.

Roderich saw that it seemed like Vash didn't want to be here, but was willing to listen to what he was going to say. "Can you promise me that you'll wait till the end to say anything."

Vash nodded his head in agreement.

"As you can guess, I told my parents about you being runaways. They were worried that you had a bad home life so they tried to make me be worried that something bad might happen to you. The truth was that I was already worried about you before then. Back then you looked so skinny that I knew you weren't getting enough to eat and gave all your food to Lily. That's why I invited you over to my place so often for dinner. I truly thought that telling them would make your problems go away. I didn't realize the consequences for my actions and for that I am sorry. I just wanted you to know that I did everything in the hope that I could protect you."

Roderich looked at Vash who wasn't saying anything. Taking the moment he decided to say something else he had been meaning to say. "I still want to be friends with you. Even though a lot of time has passed since we were little, you're still the best friend I ever had. You may not be able to forgive me for what I did, but I hope you can at least understand why I did what I did back then."

Roderich was staring at his feet, afraid to look at Vash in the face in case what he was was pure hatred again. The silence dragged on and Roderich started becoming a little impatient. Did Vash understand why he did it and more importantly does he forgive me?

"I just want you to know that you were also an important friend for me as well. Fuck, you're the only friend I've ever really had." Roderich took the opportunity to look up at Vash. Vash averted his gaze and continued talking. "And while I may not be able to forgive you I understand why you broke our promise. To you my well being was more important and for that I thank you." Vash shuffled and looked Roderich in his eyes. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I will try being friends with you again."

Roderich got a huge grin on his face and hugged Vash. Vash didn't know what to do for a few seconds and then returned the hug. "Are you crying," asked Vash.

"Maybe," said Roderich. "This is something I've wanted to happen for so long that I can't believe it's finally happening."

Vash laughed. "As usual you cry over the most stupidest of things."

"To me this isn't stupid. It's the most important moment in life."

"You were always a sucker for dramatic moments. You haven't changed."

"Neither have you."

For a while the boys just stood there hugging each other. They had both regained a long lost friend and were enjoying the moment as long as possible.

* * *

**A/N: Really sorry for the long wait! I promise I haven't abandoned the story and I will finish it! As always please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

It was Saturday morning when Roderich was awoken by the ringing of the door bell. The rude awakening caused him to lay there in a stupor wondering what the ringing was. The ringing soon stopped, and Roderich turned over in his bed and tried to go back to sleep. These plans were interrupted when his door was opened by Elizabeta.

"Figured you would still be sleeping. Come on we have some things to discuss about what Vash and Lily are going to do."

"What time is it," muttered Roderich.

"A bit after 10."

"To early." He pulled his covers back over his head and figured he could stay in bed for another half an hour. The covers of his bed were then ripped off.

"We have a lot to do today so get up."

Roderich grumbled but he knew better than to not listen to Elizabeta when she gave orders like that. She tended to be awfully persistent.

A few minutes later and he was walking downstairs rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Not seeing anybody in the living room he tried the study and found everybody. Elizabeta was sitting at the desk with her laptop and a stack of papers and everybody else was sitting in chairs facing the desk. Roderich pulled up a chair and joined them.

"Thank you for finally joining us sleepy head," said Elizabeta.

Roderich grumbled still not fully awake without his coffee.

"The cook should have your breakfast ready soon along with your coffee I know you can get crabby without it."

"Do you need to sleep all day," asked Vash.

"I was up late last night composing music," said Roderich.

"Still doesn't excuse sleeping all day."

Elizabeta smiled at the scene going on. Roderich had informed her that Vash and him were rekindling their friendship, but it was good to see it for her own eyes. The chef soon came in with Roderich's breakfast and coffee.

"Alright I'm going to start while Roderich eats since we have a lot to do and not a whole lot of time," said Elizabeta. "I'm been doing a little research legally about what we can do to keep Vash and Lily together. First off I have a few questions. When will Vash be 18 and does anybody check up on Greg to see if he is taking care of the two of you?"

"I'll be 18 a couple of months before we graduate, and nobody really comes to check up on us."

"Alright. So what I've been thinking that we do is make Vash Lily's legal guardian. That way they can't ever be separated again. Vash will need to be 18 and show that he is able to take care of Lily. We will also need to show why he should be Lily's legal guardian and not Greg but we don't need to worry about that. One big problem is showing Vash has the financial stability to take care of Lily."

"Sounds like I will need to get a full time job and we will have to wait till I graduate."

Elizabeta nodded. "Plus getting all the paperwork done and going to court might take a while. I don't know if we would have the time to wait and I'm also not that hopeful that they will think Vash can take care of Lily. We might end up fighting a losing battle and the risk being that Lily will have to go back in the system if we lose. There is another option though. We get someone else to become Vash and Lily's legal guardians."

"And who would that be," asked Vash.

"I was thinking Roderich's parents," said Elizabeta."They are already a bit involved since you guys are staying at their house. They also wouldn't have trouble supporting the two of you financially. If we go with this option I'm going to say we will definitely win. The only problem is getting Roderich's parents to go along with it."

"I think my parents would be okay with it, but they might be against us not going to the authorities with Greg trying to hit Lily," said Roderich thinking of last time they went to the authorities.

"We'll just have to convince them that it's too much of a risk with the gun involved," said Elizabeta. "I was thinking we would prepare for both options in the meantime while we wait for Roderich's parents to come back."

"Well my parents aren't going to be coming back for another month, so if we want them to do something I need to tell them to come home."

Elizabeta then looked at Vash and Lily. "I'm going to leave this decision up to you two. Just realize that the quicker you make a decision the better." Everybody agreed and Elizabeta continued speaking. "While we wait we have something much more immediate that needs our attention. What to do with Greg. We need to keep him from trying to keep you from switching guardianship since he'll want you guys to stay for the money. Our biggest concern is that he'll threaten Vash with going to the authorities for not having a concealed weapons permit."

"So we need to scare him," said Vash.

"In a sense," said Elizabeta. "We need to convince him to not go after you guys so scaring him might be involved. Roderich and I will be heading over shortly."

"Hold on," said Vash. "Why can't I come?"

"We're trying to get him to stay away from the both of you. Bring you to his front door isn't going to help."

"I don't think the two of you are enough to scare him off."

"That's why it just won't be the two of us. I invited Gilbert to come and join us. He should be here soon."

Vash eventually resigned and agreed to their plan. He wasn't happy but they were adamant against him doing anything. Plus Lily gave him the puppy dog eyes that no matter how hard he tried to resist he couldn't. But at least it wouldn't be just the two of them. He was afraid the Greg would get violent if it was just them and he thought he could take a couple of teenagers especially if he was drunk as usual.

It wasn't long before they heard the doorbell ring, signifying the arrival of Gilbert. "I'll get it," said Elizabeta as she bounced out of the room. Everyone secretly smiled at her behavior except Vash who was out of the loop.

Elizabeta opened up the door and said, "Just in time. We finished talking about what we're going to do not too long ago."

"Holy shit this house is huge," said Gilbert.

Elizabeta whacked him on the head. "Watch your mouth. Lily could hear you."

"Yeah, yeah."

Gilbert walked in the house and followed Elizabeta to the study.

"Alright since everybody is here let's get going," said Elizabeta.

"Alright," said Roderich and got up.

"He's supposed to scare someone," said Gilbert while pointing at Roderich.

"Hey," shouted Roderich.

"Strength in numbers," said Elizabeta. Roderich shot her a look at this and Gilbert laughed. "Come on let's go."

"Don't get hurt," said Vash.

"Well be fine," said Elizabeta.

* * *

They were at the front of Greg's house about to knock on the door. "Who should knock on the door," asked Roderich.

"How about the scary albino," said Gilbert. "The red eyes freak them out all the time."

"Go ahead," said Elizabeta.

Gilbert knocked on the door twice and waited for an answer. Not getting one he tried knocking again. After he didn't get an answer still, he tried once more.

"Maybe he's too drunk to hear us," suggested Elizabeta.

"Or he couldn't be here," said Roderich who was ignored by the others.

"I'll make sure he hears us," said Gilbert. He was starting to back up to kick on the door when it opened.

"Finally came back did ya," said Greg when he opened the door. After seeing it was them he grew confused. "What do you all want."

Greg was slurring his words making it very clear that he was drunk. They just hoped he wasn't too drunk that he would forget everything that happened. "We're here to discuss Vash and Lily," said Gilbert

"And who are you."

"Friends."

"They are currently staying somewhere else and have no intentions of coming back," said Elizabeta. "In a few months they will have new legal guardians and you will lose any control over them you have. Until then you will not try to find them, or try get them to come back using any means possible. If you try to contact the authorities we will tell them the reason why they had to leave."

Greg glared at them. "What makes you think I'm going to listen to a bunch of snot nosed brats. I'm their legal guardian and they are going to live with me till they no longer can't."

"We're well aware that all you want is the money. But your greed has gotten out of control. Luckily you'll be able to get checks until they get another legal guardian since that's all you're interested in."

"And why didn't you get the police to tell me this instead?" It seemed Greg thought for a few seconds and he still had some working brain cells left. "You're afraid that I'm going to tell them about the gun."

Elizabeta sucked in her breath. She was hoping Greg wouldn't question anything and just go along with it.

Greg showed his slimy smile. "Maybe I'll got to the authorities myself. Tell them to take the kids away and mention that gun he has illegally. I might lose the money but it will be worth it to see that bastard in jail and his little sister crying."

Roderich clenched hands and was gnashing his teeth. He wasn't one to get angry but what Greg was saying made him mad beyond any extreme. He then stepped to the front of the group and gave Greg an icy glare.

"You don't get it do you," said Roderich. "If you go the authorities you'll get in trouble as well. I wonder how much jail time you'll face for child neglect. And even if you do say anything about the gun they might not believe you." The last part was a bluff, but he hoped Greg wouldn't catch onto that and would be scared by the potential jail time he would face. Roderich then gave a cold smile. "Plus there are others ways that we can keep you silent if you don't cooperate. Stay out of our way and this will be easier for all of us."

Greg was silent and for a second it didn't look like he comprehended what Roderich said. "Fine," he slurred out. "Just let me keep my checks." Greg then slammed the door on them.

Not knowing what else to do, they all walked away. After some distance from the house Elizabeta turned to Roderich.

"Where the hell did that even come from? I had no idea you even had something like that inside of you."

Roderich looked at this feet, a bit ashamed of what came over him. "After hearing him say those things about Vash and Lily I just got really mad. I'm sorry I didn't stick with the plan but I couldn't ."

"Well in the end we did stuck with the plan," said Gilbert.

Elizabeta sighed and agreed with him. "I just really hope he even remembers our visit in the first place. I could smell the booze on his breath a mile away."

Gilbert shrugged. "He wasn't that drunk to forget. If anything he might change his mind later but for at least now he won't bother us."

* * *

Vash was waiting for them as soon as they got back. "How did it all go? Did you succeed?"

"We hope so," said Elizabeta. She quickly filled Vash about what had happened "Now that we got that done with, let's go shopping!"

Elizabeta got looks from the boys around her. "What? Vash and Lily need some clothes. They can't very well keep on wearing mine and Roderich's forever."

"I'm paying," said Roderich before anyone else could get a word out. Roderich was expecting Vash to protest but he was surprised. Vash mumbled something under his breath that sounded like 'well that would save me money' and agreed.

"Well since I'm done here I'll be leaving you guys," said Gilbert. He was starting to head out when Elizabeta stopped him.

"Why don't you come with us. I haven't been able to see you much since this whole mess started." Gilbert stared at his feet and mumbled an agreement.

Lily was told of the plan and got excited that she would get some new clothes. She did like Elizabeta's clothes, but they were a bit too big for her. Plus she liked her clothes to be a little more pink.

Roderich was driving and everybody was a bit surprised that he didn't have that of a fancy car as the rest of his would suggest. Apparently his parents were afraid he would wreck his car since he hadn't be driving for that long so they got him his current car. Granted it was still nicer than most cars people his age would have.

They got to the shopping mall and once they got in the store they split up, boys and girls. While Vash was trying on clothes in the dressing room Gilbert decided he would confront Roderich about him dating Elizabeta.

"I'm just going to say this as her best friend that you better treat her right."

Roderich raised one of his eyebrows at this. "What are you talking about?"

"Elizabeta. Since you're dating her I'm just saying that you should treat her right is all."

"We're not dating."

Gilbert paused for what seemed liked two minutes before he responded. "Say that again."

"We're not dating," Roderich said slowly.

"But...I thought...it just seemed like…"

"Why wouldn't she tell you that we were dating if we really were?"

"Well she knows I don't like you and so I figured she just didn't what to tell me."

"Trust me. She wouldn't ever date me because..." and Roderich cut himself off. He was just about to say because she liked Gilbert. But he knew this is the exact opposite of what Elizabeta would want him to say and he was grateful that he caught the slip before it happened. Luckily for him, Gilbert didn't catch his almost slip up.

* * *

Vash was in the dressing room listening to Roderich's and Gilbert's conversation. He couldn't understand but when Gilbert mentioned that Roderich and Elizabeta were dating his stomach dropped a bit. However when he heard that this was all a misunderstanding he instantly felt better. 'That's weird,' he thought. He couldn't figure out why it would concern him so much who was dating whom. He decided to ignore it and he gathered the clothes from the dressing room to leave.

Vash came out of the dressing room to find Gilbert crouched on the floor staring at the wall while Roderich looked like he had no idea what to do. Gilbert muttered something that sounded like how could he have been that stupid and something about revising the plan. "Is he okay," asked Vash.

"I don't know," said Roderich. "He thought Elizabeta and I were dating and afterwards he just kind of freaked out."

Gilbert than stood up then. "Well that was a huge misunderstanding. Sorry about that."

"That's ok," said Roderich. Roderich looked at the pile of clothes in Vash's arms. "You didn't get much clothes."

"I was just making sure the clothes would fit then I would grab more of the same kind of clothes."

"Don't you get tired of wearing the same kinds of clothes everyday."

"No."

Roderich only laughed at this.

* * *

Lily and Elizabeta were picking out clothes together and Elizabeta noticed that out of the corner of her eye Lily would look troubled. The poor girl was thinking too much about what happened to her and Vash. Elizabeta decided she could at least keep Lily's mind off it for a while. "So how close are Roderich and your brother getting? Roderich told me they are friends again."

Lily seemed surprised by the question but quickly answered it. "They're talking to each other which is a huge improvement. Vash would try to avoid saying anything to Roderich as much as possible. When we watched a movie yesterday they sat next to each other and chatted with each other."

"That's good."

"So what are you going to do in order to get them together."

"At this point nothing. I gave Roderich the push he needed to rekindle their friendship and later I might need to give him another push. Other than that it's up to him."

"What if my brother doesn't like Roderich?"

Elizabeta shrugged her shoulders. "Then theirs nothing to be done. I'm not going to try and force something that isn't there. I'm sure Roderich would be sad but I think he'll be happy just to have his friend back."

"I think Vash is happy to have his friend back as well. He just won't show it." Lily picked out another dress and held it up to herself.

"That one's cute."

"I think I'll try it on."

With an armful of clothes they went into the dressing room. "How are you and Gilbert doing," asked Lily.

"Same as usual," said Elizabeta. Truth was, it wasn't same as usual after the last time they hung out. Ever since she caught the look Gilbert gave to her, she had been a bit uneasy. She knew what she wanted it to be but thought she might be wrong. 'Maybe I should just ask him out,' thought Elizabeta. Of course he might say no, but she had to do something or their relationship was just going to stay this way forever. They didn't have that much time before school was over and she was afraid she might lose her chance forever. But right now she was too concerned about Vash and Lily. Maybe after she didn't have to worry if they would stay together or not she would think about her own happiness. Until then she would just push it off to the side.

"If you need my help with anything just let me know."

"I will."

* * *

After they bought the clothes, they decided they should all relax a bit considering the stressful events that happened today. It was decided that they would have a game night. So they took out a bunch of board games and were switching back and forth between them. It was pretty uncompetitive until someone suggested that they play Monopoly.

It was then that they learned how ruthless of a player Vash could be and how well he managed his money.

It was around 10 that Gilbert started making excuses about having to go home since his parents would be upset if he didn't get back soon. Elizabeta, noticing the time, left with him as well.

On the walk back to their homes Gilbert was a bit distracted with his thoughts. Elizabeta didn't notice since she was a bit occupied with hers. They parted ways and went to their respective homes.

* * *

Even though it was late, Elizabeta didn't go to bed right away. She went on her computer and was googling how to ask a friend out. Unfortunately the results she was getting weren't helping her at all. Everybody said variations of the same thing and nothing really gave her the answers for her specific situation. She turned off her computer and sighed. It seemed like she was on her own for when it came to coming up with a plan. She then realized that now wasn't the time for these thoughts. There were bigger things to concern herself about. Once Vash and Lily's situation was taken care of she would worry about herself. Maybe.

* * *

Gilbert was staring intently at the whiteboard that he had set up in his room. It almost seemed like a pity to him. His entire plan was now derailed now that he found out Elizabeta and Roderich weren't dating. Looking back on his misunderstanding just made himself feel stupid. Now he saw how obvious it was that they weren't dating, but he had been too quick to jump the gun and too crushed to look at the signs around him.

He grabbed an eraser and erased the entire board. The rest of his plan was useless since he didn't have to separate Roderich and Elizabeta in order for her to be available. There was now only one thing left to completely plan out. And that was making the perfect date happen. He had to plan everything down to the last detail. From how to cover up in case she rejected him to what happened if the weather didn't go as planned. He took out his markers and started scribbling furiously. It would take a lot of work to get this just right. Hell he might even need some help. He only had one shot to make this work and he didn't want to mess this up.

He quickly realized that his current plan wasn't going to be enough with just his input. Even researching online didn't help. Cursing himself that he never went on any dates he started wondering what he was going to do. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to entirely plan this date by himself he started coming up with a list of people that would be able to help him. He pushed the list to the side and started working on asking Elizabeta out. He didn't want to come up with the perfect date plan and not be able to use it. He started writing and erasing as he came up with, in his mind, the most awesome way to ask out Elizabeta.

* * *

**A/N: I didn't take forever to upload a chapter for once! And on top of that I have the rest chapter already written up. I just need to edit it. Whenever this gets done all depends on a free otome game that should be coming out this week. Regardless of when it comes out this week, I will upload the chapter by at least Saturday. Sooner if the game doesn't come out till later this week. And as always please review and tell me what you think.**

**P.S. In the midst of writing the next chapter I started shipping another couple of characters and I plan on them getting together in this story. It'll probably become more obvious who they are next chapter but a clue is that they've already bonded in this story. **


	7. Chapter 7

The next few days passed by almost uneventfully. No calls from child services about how they would have to find them a new home, and Greg didn't do anything to disturb the waters. During this time Vash had a lot of thinking to do. About what to do in order to be able to stay with Lily. He didn't want to have to rely on others in order to get out of this mess. He didn't want to burden others with his problems. However this mentality is what made their problems occur last time and Vash was well aware of this. And deep down he had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to get out of this mess all on his own. This time he might have to get help from someone else.

During school he managed to get Elizabeta by herself. "What do you think the chances are for me to become Lily's guardian?"

"I'm not a lawyer so I'm not that sure, but I have a feeling it would take a long time for it to happen."

"What do you mean by that."

"You will have to prove that you can take care of Lily. For that you will most likely need to get an apartment, and a stable job. And on top of that you will have to graduate as well. All of those things are going to take a lot of time." Elizabeta sighed and for a second a pained expression came across her face. "Honestly I don't think we'll have the time to do that. We might have scared Greg off but I have feeling that won't last long. He'll gain back his senses, realize he doesn't have to be scared off a bunch of teenagers, and try to get you guys to stay so he can keep the money. We'll make sure he won't be able to keep you guys, but you and Lily might be separated."

Vash didn't like hearing this. He knew it was probably the truth, but hearing it out loud certainly didn't help with anything. He thanked Elizabeta and pretended to walk to class. He occasionally skipped out of not wanting to get involved in class activities, but right now he needed some time with his thoughts. He needed to make a decision in order to save Lily. And while it might not be easy for him he will probably have to swallow his pride.

It was late at night and everybody was in bed when Roderich heard a knock on his door. He wasn't actually asleep since he was composing music, but he was curious who was still up at this hour. He opened up the door and saw it was Vash. "Can I talk to you," asked Vash.

Roderich nodded and let him in. "I'm been thinking a lot about what we should be doing for the whole legal guardianship thing lately," Vash continued. "And I've come to a decision." Vash stared in Roderich's eyes and Roderich saw a silent plea in his eyes. "I think it would be best if your parents become our legal guardians."

"You sure about this," asked Roderich.

Vash nodded. "Honestly I don't think we'll have a lot of time and in order for me to become Lily's guardian time is something we desperately need. However if your parents can't do anything I understand perfectly."

Roderich smiled and took Vash's hand. "I'm sure they will be willing to help. They'll probably feel a sense of obligation since what happened last time was sort of their fault. Plus I will do anything in my power to make them do this."

"Thanks."

Roderich smiled at him. "Don't mention it. That's what friends are for."

* * *

The next morning, Roderich was staring at his phone, debating at what to say to his parents. They weren't supposed to return back for another month at least. And it wasn't like they were just traveling for a vacation so they could just return home anytime. They were going to conferences that they couldn't miss. Roderich wouldn't normally even dare of thinking of calling his parents to get them to come back home early, but this wasn't for him. This was for Vash, someone who was a very important person to him. With these thoughts in his head, he was able to gather enough courage to pick up the phone.

Dialing his mother's number he put it to his ear and patiently waited for her to pick it up. He knew she wasn't at a meeting, since they gave him their schedule, but knowing his mother she might not hear her phone go off. Just as he was about to think that she wasn't going to pick up her phone she did.

"It's rare for you to call me," his mother said. "Is there something wrong?"

Roderich steeled himself as what he had to do next was going to certainly be difficult. "Nothing is wrong with me but I do have a favor to ask of you."

"What's that. Your father and I can't do much since we're not home but we'll try."

"That's the thing. This will require for you to come home. Do you have somewhere you have to be soon?"

"No. What's going on?"

"It's a long story." Roderich spent what seemed like half an hour explaining the whole situation. He didn't leave out the details with the gun considering he knew his mother would get him to tell her about it anyways. When he finished there was silence on the other end of the line that worried him a bit.

"Let me talk to your father. I'll call you back when we've come to a decision."

"Alright. Just promise me you won't go to the authorities."

"I promise."

And with that the phone conversation ended leaving Roderich a little tired. It took a lot out of him to talk to his parents like that since it wasn't something he was used to doing. Put he did have a little hope. His mother and father were the type of people who couldn't help but give assistance to others. The only thing he was concerned about was if they would think it was better to leave it to the authorities.

Worrying about it wasn't going to do anything so he got up to tell everyone how calling his parents went down so far.

Roderich was pacing through the living room and it was starting to get on Vash's nerves.

"You're making me nervous," he yelled.

Roderich stopped and mumbled an apology. "They should have called back by now is all."

Vash motioned for Roderich to sit next to him and Roderich complied. "You shouldn't be worrying about this so much. This is my problem."

"I just want you to be happy is all."

Vash allowed a small smile at this. Not many people cared about his own happiness so it made him feel a little important knowing that he was important to someone.

"How's Lily taking everything?"

"The usual. She seems to be more concerned about me than about herself. I wouldn't mind it so much if she hadn't gone through that earlier experience."

"Maybe she'll open up to Elizabeta." While Vash and Roderich were waiting for the phone call from Roderich's parents Elizabeta was taking Lily out to get their nails done. Elizabeta had claimed that she didn't like getting her nails done alone, but in truth they were trying to keep Lily's mind off what happened. Even though she claimed she was okay she still slept with Vash instead of her own bed. And every once in a while she got an odd expression over her face showing that everything wasn't okay. She wouldn't open up about it to Vash so the hope was Elizabeta could get it out of her.

* * *

Elizabeta and Lily were getting their nails done and chatting. While Lily was talking and seemed interested in the conversation, Elizabeta noticed that she only did the bare minimum to keep the conversation going. Elizabeta kept on glancing at her from the corner of her eye and Lily seemed out of it. Elizabeta bit her lip getting slowly worried by this. Lily had been putting out of this front of being okay, but it was becoming clear that she wasn't okay.

They had finished getting their nails done and were eating pretzels on a bench outside. Seeing a chance Elizabeta took it. "How have you been holding up?"

There was a slight pause before Lily responded. "I'm fine."

"I know you've been covering up how bad it is not to worry anyone, but that's extremely unhealthy. I would really like if you would talk to me."

Lily gave a fake smile to Elizabeta. "I assure you everything is fine."

Elizabeta was going to protest when someone walked behind them and took a portion of Elizabeta's pretzel. She didn't even have to look behind her to know it was Natalia.

"You mind," she asked.

"I would let you do the same." Natalia gave a small wave to Lily who waved back.

Elizabeta then had an idea. "I forgot to buy a drink. It won't take long so you two can wait till I come back." She got up and as she passed Natalia she whispered in her ear, "Make her talk." She then walked back into the mall and hoped this tactic would work better.

Natalia sat down on the bench next to her and it was silent for a while as Lily was eating her pretzel and Natalia was thinking. "How have you and your brother been doing? You still worried about him," Natalia asked.

Lily put her pretzel down beside her and bit her lip. "A bit." Natalia looked at Lily and saw the pain that she was all too aware of. She put her hand over Lily's.

"You can tell me what's wrong. I'll understand."

Lily had been struggling to keep the tears back, but she finally lost her self control. She put her hand in her face and started bawling. "I'm afraid that they'll take me away from brother and I won't see him anymore. Everyone keeps on saying they'll take care of it, but I have a feeling that it won't work out."

Natalia put her arms around Lily's shoulder and pulled her close. "For a long time I was worried about the same thing as you. Fortunately for me my big brother wouldn't let what I feared happen. Do you think your brother would let you get taken away from him?"

Lily shook her head no. "Then it won't happen. Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't worry, but you need to rely on your big brother and remember that you are important to him as he is to you."

Lily nodded and Natalia waited patiently as Lily's sobs started to die down. "Give me your phone."

Lily took it our of her bag and handed it to Natalia. Natalia then opened it up and started entering in her contact info. When she was done she handed it back to Lily. "Whenever you need someone to talk to just call or text me. Don't ever worry about waking me up. I go to bed late and usually wake up early to." Natalia then ruffled Lily's hair. "I'm here if you need me."

Lily thanked her and gave her a relieved smile. Getting it all of her chest did end up helping her in the end since she felt like she was at peace with herself now.

Elizabeta was waiting from a far for a signal that it was okay for her to come back to the bench. Natalia looked back and gave a slight nod indicating that she was done. Elizabeta returned to the bench and was happy to see the first genuine smile she had seen on Lily's face for a long time.

* * *

After they returned from getting their nails done, Roderich's parents still haven't called back. The hours ticked by and Elizabeta started to get calls from her parents since it was taking a long time for her to come home. Seeing that it was going to take a long time for Roderich's parents to call back she arranged to stay the night. She wanted to know right away if something happened. At midnight they forced Lily to go to bed.

Finally at 1 in the morning, Roderich's phone went off. Roderich nearly tripped over the coffee table to grab the phone. "Hello," he said.

"Honey, it's your mother."

Roderich tightened his grip on the phone. "Have you and father decided what to do yet?"

"We have come to a decision. We've decided to become their legal guardians so they won't have to be separated."

Roderich was flooded with relief and barely heard her next words. "We've managed to tweak our schedules so that we'll be able to come back next week. Plus we've contacted our lawyer so we'll start the process to become their legal guardian right away. That's why it took so long to call back."

"That's fine."

"Has their guardian try to get them to back since the incident?"

"No."

"Alright. If anything should happen please go the police. I know you're afraid he might say something about the gun, but their safety is more important."

"I will."

"See you next week. Love you."

"Love you too."

Roderich hung up the phone and felt like a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulders.

"What did she say," asked Vash not hiding the concern in his voice.

Roderich smiled at him. "They said they'll become your legal guardians. They'll be here next week and they can start the procedure."

Elizabeta cheered in the background and Vash did something unexpected. He hugged Roderich.

Roderich was surprised at the uncharacteristic behavior but quickly returned the hug. "Thank you," Vash whispered.

Roderich was going to say that he didn't have to thank him, but he knew that Vash would only protest at that so he just said your welcome.

They then heard a sneeze from the stairs and everyone turned around. Lily then sheepishly came out into the open. "I thought I told you to go to bed," Vash said.

"I know but I couldn't go to sleep not knowing what would happen."

Vash sighed and motioned for her to come towards him and he hugged her. "It's okay. I just didn't want you to worry with the rest of us."

"Sending me to my room would only make me worry even more."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Well I don't know about all of you, but I'm tired and going to get some sleep," said Elizabeta. Saying goodnight she went to one of the guest rooms. Seeing that it was really late, everyone else decided to follow suit.

But before going to bed Lily hugged Roderich and he returned the hug. "Thanks for all you've done for us. Without you I don't know what would have happened to us."

"You're welcome. And remember that I would do this all over again if I needed to."

* * *

Elizabeta woke up next morning with her phone going off. Groaning, she started reaching for her phone until she managed to find it under her pillow. Opening up an eye to look at the screen she saw that she was getting a bunch of texts from Gilbert. All of them were saying wake up in all caps. And as they kept on coming Elizabeta groaned as she realized that Gilbert was blowing up her phone. Knowing he wouldn't stop till she responded she started typing up a response.

'What do you want?'

'Looks like Miss Sleepy Head decided to wake up finally.'

'It's the weekend. I think I'm entitled to sleep in.'

"Till noon?"

Confused for a second Elizabeta looked at the time and saw that it was indeed noon.

'Shit.' She didn't need him to respond to know that he was laughing his head off.

'Well when you finally wake up you come to my house. I'm bored.'

'I'm not your personal entertainer.' Despite this she got up and started getting ready. It was good that Gilbert texted her since she needed to relax a bit after stressing out about what would happen to Vash and Lily this entire time. She said goodbye to everyone and went to her house to pick up a change of clothes. After telling her parents where she would be, she walked over to Gilbert's house.

As she was nearing the stairs she heard a familiar laughter and looked up in time to see a water balloon fly towards her face.

"Shit!" Her attempt to dodge failed and her face was now soaking wet. She glared up to the window where it came from and Gilbert started leaning out of the window.

"You took so long so I had to entertain myself some how."

Gilbert was laughing so hard that he didn't see Elizabeta go for the garden hose and he soon got drenched.

"You asked for it," he shouted. He started whipping more balloons at Elizabeta as she continued to try and spray him. They're little battle was stopped when Ludwig started yelling at them for wasting water.

"Are you going to come out here," asked Elizabeta.

"You're coming in here to clean up my room."

After they were done cleaning up Gilbert's room he decided that they should play video games. When Elizabeta pointed out that he could have played them by himself he just shrugged. They spent the next hours playing video games until Ludwig said he wanted Gilbert to help making dinner. Instead of just standing around Elizabeta decided to help them out.

When their competitive nature started to impend the process of making dinner Ludwig stopped them and told them to just clean anything. This of course was turned into a competition as well. After dinner they played some more games until the sun started setting.

Then Gilbert suggested that the watch the sunset from their old spot. Their old spot was them climbing out on the roof by Gilbert's window and sitting on the west side of the house.

"It's been forever since I've been up here," said Elizabeta.

Gilbert just nodded in agreement. He fidgeted around a bit before asking, "Why did you stop hanging out with me?"

Elizabeta just stared at him confused by what he said.

"I meant when we were kids. We used to hang out all the time and then you kind of ditched me for Roderich. I was just wondering why."

"Oh," said Elizabeta. "It's a long story."

"I've got time."

"The reason I stopped hanging out with you is because my mother wanted me to start acting more like a lady. She met Roderich's parents and figured a young gentleman would be a good influence for me. She started not letting me come over to your house and used to come up with excuses why I couldn't. But I knew she thought you were a bad influence on me."

Gilbert snorted. "She should have realized it went both ways. I don't get how you could stand being around Roderich all the time."

Elizabeta shrugged. "He's not that bad when you get used to him."

"Why didn't you try and rebel?" Gilbert said it with so much emotion in his voice that Elizabeta was dazed by it for a few seconds.

"I tried to, believe me. But after all my rebelling and my situation not improving I guess I just kind of gave up. When my mother started wanting me to wear girly clothes I didn't resist. I even eventually stop asking to coming over to your place."

"It's not too late to rebel and all that. You can stop wearing girly clothes."

Elizabeta picked at her skirt. "I guess, but I'm kinda used to it now."

"Well I think you look better in less girly clothes. You look more relaxed and like yourself."

Elizabeta smiled at him. "Thanks."

There wasn't much light left so Elizabeta got up to go inside when Gilbert stopped her.

"There's something I want to show you first."

Curious she sat back down.

Gilbert picked up extension cords that he tucked away and held one in each hand.

During the week he had been planning on the perfect way to ask Elizabeta out. Eventually he came up with the perfect plan. He would light up the words 'go out with me?' on the nearby trees with christmas lights. After he made sure the words were clear and visible from the roof where they sat, he decided there weren't enough lights. So he added a crap ton more around the trees and even borrowed some from his neighbors. He made sure each strand worked and looked okay where they were, but he hadn't tried them all together yet. So what happened next shouldn't have been too much of a surprise.

He plugged them together and for a split second the lights lit up and it looked bright and to him awesome. Then everything went horribly wrong.

There was a pop sound and the lights immediately turned off. Gilbert was wondering what happened when he noticed all the lights in the house were off as well.

"GILBERT," Ludwig yelled.

Gilbert was freaking out while Elizabeta was laughing at the whole situation beside him.

"Did you at least see what it said," he asked.

Elizabeta shook her head. "Why?"

"I was trying to ask you to go out with me."

Elizabeta stopped laughing and surprise spread across her face. "Are you serious," she whispered.

Gilbert was about to reply that yes he was serious when he was interrupted. Ludwig put his head out of the window and started to yell at Gilbert. Gilbert was pushing on his head and trying to force him back into the room. "I'm doing something important right now. You can yell at me later."

Gilbert turned back to Elizabeta and felt himself blush. He wasn't prepared for this scenario at all, but he was here now and he might as well go the full distance.

"I've liked you for a long time and would like to go out on a date with you. I understand if you don't want to and we can still be friends if you don't want to go out with me. All I ask is you give me a chance."

There he said it. Now he had to wait for her response and it felt like it was taking forever as he felt every beat of his heart.

Elizabeta wondered if this was all a dream. The very thing that she had been worrying about had been solved right in front of her. It felt like a weight had been taken off her shoulder and she was completely over taken by joy.

She realized then that she hadn't responded to his question. Her voice was surprisingly steady as she said, "Yes, I would like to go out with you."

Gilbert couldn't help but grin. "So how's Wednesday for a date," he asked.

"Wednesday's fine," she said.

"Now that's done with can you please tell me what the hell you did," said Ludwig from Gilbert's room.

Gilbert sheepishly went inside and started explaining what he did.

Ludwig was annoyed at his brother's idiocy, but he kept himself from yelling too much considering his reasons behind it. He waited till Elizabeta was gone to truly yell at his brother, but he was lenient on him since it was a while since he saw his brother this happy.

* * *

**A/N: I would have gotten this out yesterday, but I got preoccupied with something else. That otome game should come out soon so the release date might effect how soon the next chapter will come out. The two people I ship now ****should be more obvious after this chapter! I haven't decided how much they will be in there but they will get together some place during this fic. As always please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

Two days. Gilbert had two days to plan his date with Elizabeta and he was completely stuck. His only experience with dating came from movies. And all of the dates were either impossible for him to pull off or a complete cliche. He didn't want his first date with Elizabeta to seem dull. He wanted to show Elizabeta that he to could have a romantic side to him if he tried to bring it out.

In desperation he asked his younger brother for help. Unfortunately for him the Beilschmidt brothers seemed to be absolutely clueless when it came to dating. When Ludwig tried to start referencing a book about dating he knew he was doomed.

Now he was staring at his phone ready to text a number that he couldn't remember when he got it. His pride was telling him with every fiber of his being not to text this number. There was no guarantee that Roderich would even help him out. But he knew that if he was going to be able to pull of this date he would need his help.

He texted Roderich and threw his phone on his bed and just glared at it while he waited for a response. The quickness of the reply surprised him. He grabbed the phone and quickly read the text saying that Roderich would be coming over soon.

Gilbert was astonished that Roderich was so willing to help him out, but he figured that since Elizabeta was his friend he felt like he was obligated to help.

When Roderich arrived at the house he surprisingly had a lot of date ideas. However none of the ideas were something he knew either him or Elizabeta would have fun partaking in. It was at that moment Feliciano did one of his impromptu visits. And for the first time that day Gilbert actually found someone that could really help him come up with an idea. In the end, everyone's skills were put to use and Gilbert was confident that the date was going to be perfect. Now to get everything set up and hope that it would all go according to plan.

* * *

Wednesday night and Gilbert was at Elizabeta's front door wearing a suit with a tie that matched his eyes and a bouquet of flowers in his hand. He rang the door bell and stood stiffly on the porch. He started to take deep breaths to calm himself considering it would be hard to enjoy the date if he was nervous the whole time. Elizabeta opened up the door was wearing a green dressed that completed her eyes with an amethyst necklace and matching earrings. Gilbert noticed that she had put her hair up in a bun, something that she had been starting to do frequently.

They both tried to say something at the same time when Elizabeta's mother interrupted them first.

"Before you go anywhere I have to take pictures."

Protests from both of them fell on deaf ears. After what seemed like too many pictures they started walking to Ludwig's car who would act like their chauffeur. Elizabeta noticed with a giggle that he was even dressed for the part.

"Your mom seems excited," Gilbert said when they got in the car.

Elizabeta shrugged. "At least she's okay with it. I was afraid she might have been disappointed since she always wanted me to be with Roderich."

"Well lucky for her you got with someone even better." Elizabeta tried in vain to hide her laughter.

"I would ask where we are going, but you will probably say it's a secret," said Elizabeta.

"Yep."

Silence fell after that neither one of them knew what to say. Elizabeta put her hands in her lap and tried to calm herself. They were driving near the park and Elizabeta was a bit confused. Once they parked she was definitely wondering what they were going to do. She thought of a picnic but it was getting a little dark for them to do a picnic. Plus they weren't probably dressed for a picnic.

Exiting the car Elizabeta decided to voice her concerns. "Please tell me what we're going to do is appropriate for our clothes. I am in heels."

"Don't worry, we won't have to walk that far and there is a path that leads up to the place where we're going." Gilbert held out his hand and his cheeks were slightly flushed. When Elizabeta didn't respond right away Gilbert said, "We don't have to hold hands if you don't want to."

"I want to," she replied. Elizabeta grabbed the outstretched hand and intertwined their fingers. They walked together down the path and they soon reached their destination. When they got there Elizabeta was surprised at how much the gazebo had been transformed.

In the park there was a spacious gazebo that was right next to a nearby pond. To most people it was forgotten, but Elizabeta used to hang out here all the time with Gilbert when they were younger. It was a good place to hide and the gazebo had a fantasy aspect to it that was great for children games.

Gilbert made it seem more enchanting then they had made it out to be as children. With vengeance, Gilbert had to return with the use of lighting. But instead of using gaudy Christmas lights like last time, he intertwined small white lights around the pillars of the gazebo, the fences and had them overhanging straight down between the arches. He also added see-through curtains in the gaps between the entrances and they were fluttering in the wind. From the distance she could tell there were candles inside the gazebo to provide more lighting.

"It's beautiful," she said.

"Thanks. I didn't do it all by myself since it took a lot of work to finish."

As they got closer Elizabeta noticed the soft piano music that started up. It was then that she noticed that Roderich was inside the gazebo playing.

"How did you get that piano in there?"

Gilbert laughed sheepishly. "Let's just say it took a really long time to get it in."

They walked inside the gazebo and sat down at a table.

"Would it be okay if we started eating," asked Gilbert.

"Sure," said Elizabeta.

As if on cue Feliciano came out in a waiters uniform with a dish in each hand. He set them down on the table and packed of a bit.

"Today we will be having cotoletta for dinner and for dessert we will be having a semifreddo fruit tart," said Feliciano. He sat down the plates with the cotoletta and left the gazebo to grab the drinks.

"I would have gotten wine but I have a feeling your mother wouldn't have been too happy if she found out," said Gilbert.

They then started eating the dinner which was remarked to be delicious by both of them.

"It seemed that a lot of work went into this," said Elizabeta.

"Yeah, well the cause was worth it," said Gilbert.

Elizabeta felt a little giddy at this. The amount of work that went into this date was flattering beyond anything. Dessert was then brought out and quickly finished.

As they finished eating Gilbert looked over to the pond. "The fireflies are coming out," he said.

Elizabeta looked over in his direction and saw that he was right. They both stared at the site for a while, feeling serene watching the lights bob up and down around the water.

Gilbert coughed. "Well since we're done eating, would you like to dance?"

Elizabeta agreed and they got up and Roderich switched the song to one more suited for slow dancing.

"You really didn't need to put this much work into everything," said Elizabeta.

Gilbert smiled at her. "I wanted to. Plus we always talked about this place being a fairy castle. I wanted to try to make it look like that."

Elizabeta laughed while she remembered one of their early childhood fantasies was this was a fairy castle.

"Do you think they'll mind that we are in their domain," she asked.

"I think they'll believe that the cause is a worthy one."

They danced for a bit longer until Ludwig knocked on one of the pillars signaling it was time to get home.

"Seems like it's time for curfew," said Gilbert.

"I suppose."

Gilbert gave a look at Roderich and that was the cue for him to leave them to be alone for a while.

"Before we have to go, there's a few things that I want to say first," said Gilbert. "I just want to know that I don't expect you to date me. I'm just glad that you gave me a chance. But if you do decide that we have to be just friends there is something I want to tell you." He looked straight in her eyes before he said the next part. "You are the brightest, kindest, prettiest person that I have ever known. Being your friend is more than I could ever ask for."

Hearing these words from Gilbert made her heart feel like it was going to explode. She realized that if she was ever going to tell him how she felt, that now would be the time to do that.

"You the best friend that I could ever ask for. You always knew how to make me smile and keep me entertained. And while you would always goof around, I know you can be one of the most serious and trustworthy people when I need you to be. But lately my feelings for you have started to change. Or maybe it's me realizing what my feelings for you really were. However I was afraid that if I was open with the feelings that I would lose you. When I realized that we had to start to drift apart I was realizing that I might already be losing you. So now I can say with courage that I've liked you for a long time."

"So does that mean you would like to be my girlfriend?"

Elizabeta nodded.

Gilbert grinned and picked Elizabeta up while twirling her around. "I never thought this would happen."

"Put me down," she said while laughing.

Gilbert complied and at that moment there faces were only a few inches away from each other. Both of them came together to close the gap and they had their first kiss.

"I feel like we should have done this a long a time ago," said Gilbert.

"It doesn't matter about what could of happened. We are here now and it's just important that we enjoy our time together."

"I suppose I should get you home before your parents get too mad."

They walked back down the path together hand in hand.

* * *

It was the next day at school, and everything was the same except Gilbert and Elizabeta were now officially a couple. The butterflies that one got from young love were still there. For the first time lunch was eaten with the entire gang. There was no more need of secret planning, as of now, so they decided that the would enjoy each other's company all together.

With all that they had been stressing out lately, they spent the next few days relaxing and before they knew it Roderich's parents had come home. When they came back Roderich greeted them at the door while Vash stood in the background awkwardly.

He was presented with a very odd situation that he never thought that he might encounter. On one hand these were the people that sent him and Lily back into the system and almost got them separated. On the other they were going to be his and Lily's saving grace. And while he loathed to admit it, Roderich's parents might have done the right thing in sending them back to the orphanage.

Looking at them now, Vash realized how much they haven't changed. Now it was more obvious that Roderich's father looked very much like an aged and season Roderich. His mother still had her dark hair up in a messy but elegant bun. Vash noted with little surprise that they both wore expensive clothing.

When they looked towards him Vash felt like he had to say something to them. "I want to thank you you Mr. and Mrs. Edelstein for helping us out." Vash's very stiff and formal greeting was pushed to the side and Roderich's mother pulled him into an embrace.

"Just call us Maja and Roland. We are going to be family after all," said Maja.

Vash stiffly returned the hug, a little surprised about the sudden hug from her. Roland then patted him on the top of the head.

"We're just glad that we will be able to help you out," said Roland.

All of his earlier resentments was washed away under the way that Roderich's parents were treating him with such kindness. They met with Lily next and they soon won her over as well, but that didn't surprise Vash at all. All she remembered of the incident was the general idea that they ran away, so she had no resentments.

Since it was already late, they decided they would talk about the specifics the next day when everybody had a night's rest and wasn't tired. Roderich's parents just mentioned that everything was already in motion and that they didn't need to worry about anything. Later they both got Vash alone to talk to him about what happened in the past.

Maja decided to start talking first. "I want to apologize for what we did in the past to you and your sister." Vash was about to protest when he was silenced by Maja's hand. "I know that you're going to say that we were looking out for you. However I am very aware that we could have gone about things a different way. We never thought about the fact that you and your sister could be separated."

"We now realize that we could have handled things differently," said Roland. "That if instead of alerting the authorities we should have taken you into our household and made you a part of our family. Maybe things would have worked out better that way."

"That's the past and nothing can be done to change that," said Vash.

Maja and Roland both gave pained smiles. "Well I suppose that's true," said Maja. "Well at least you and Roderich are friends again. He tends to lack in close friends so the more the can get the better." Maja's eyes then narrowed. "Now I'm going to ask about this gun that you have. Don't claim that you don't have it anymore since I don't see you giving up your firearm."

Vash grumbled and then pulled out his small pistol out of his jeans pocket. Maja held out her hand and he reluctantly put in her hand.

"I'm going to put this in our safe for now. You'll get it back when you're old enough."

Vash nodded in agreement. It bugged him that he wouldn't have the familiar weight with him all the time, but now he was in a situation that he wouldn't need it anymore. So maybe giving it up would be a good thing. Maybe like detaching himself completely from his past life.

"Now go and join the others," said Roland. "We'll come out shortly."

As Vash walked away he felt a lot lighter.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the wait and the short chapter. The next one will be up soon! As always please review!**


	9. Chapter 9

A month had flown by. A lot had to be done for the upcoming court session. And on top of that Elizabeta and Gilbert were preoccupied with their new found romance. When finding out about their relationship, none of their close friends were surprised to find out about it. Other people in their school were surprised though since they always thought Elizabeta was going to get with Roderich much to the annoyance of Gilbert and Roderich.

Vash and Roderich were becoming close friends again as if the incident had never happened. Roderich really wanted to make a move, but was afraid that he would lose the friendship that took so long to build up between them. So for now he decided to stay just as friends, and Roderich was satisfied with that.

Before they realized it was a couple of nights before the court date was going to happen. No one was really worried about the outcome since their was no way the could see that the court would rule in favor of Greg over Roderich's parents. Because of this they decided they should relax a bit and enjoy life. Elizabeta and Gilbert went out on a date and left the others to do whatever. Originally it was going to be Roderich, Vash, and Lily, but Lily had made other plans to hang out with Natalia. Vash and Roderich would now have to hand out by themselves.

With just the two of them, they were struck by the fact that they didn't have any interests in common. Not knowing what to do they decided to walk to the nearby park instead of staying inside like they usually did.

"You walk really slow," said Vash as he slowed his pace to match Roderich's.

"Sorry," said Roderich.

"You don't need to apologize."

They kept walking for a while longer when Roderich started walking even slower.

Seeing this Vash tried to get him to sit down and rest. Roderich complained that he would get his suit dirty if he did that. So they had to keep on walking until they found a bench and by then Roderich was walking at a snail's pace.

"You need to increase your physical stamina," said Vash.

"I have no need to," said Roderich. "My passion is music so I don't need to be physically fit."

Vash muttered an agreement. "I've been busy so I haven't heard you play lately."

"I can play for you later when you get back."

"That would be nice."

They just sat there for a while, enjoying each other's company. They didn't talk much, but that wasn't their kind of relationship. While their interests didn't match up they enjoyed spending time with each other.

While they were sitting there, Vash kept on looking at Roderich out of the corner of his eye. He didn't know why he was doing this and what his current feelings met. They confused him and he was wondering what they meant. One thing he did know was that looking at him made him happy.

However there were more important things to worry about, so he pushed these thoughts out of his mind. Well tried to at least.

On the other hand Roderich was doing the same thing, but he had a full grasp of his feelings. He had to just keep himself from letting his feeling show. Again trying.

So the two sat there for a while, oblivious to the way their hearts were on display for all to see.

* * *

Ever since Lily got Natalia's number, she had been texting her quite frequently. At first it was just so she had someone to talk about what was happening with the court process, but eventually she found herself talking about things much less important. It eventually reached the point where she would be in the middle of class, think of something that she had to tell Natalia and would risk getting in trouble just to text her.

So when she ended up getting free time to spend with her brother, she decided to stick with her predetermined plans to hang out with Natalia. After all she didn't get to hang out with friends a lot considering she didn't make many due to her quiet nature. So while she loved her brother she would rather hang out with Natalia. Plus she wanted to give her brother and Roderich as much alone time as possible. She felt like something was on the verge of happening and wanted to give them as many chances as possible for it to happen.

When she was preparing to leave the house, Roderich's parents offered her a ride. She was going to turn it down, but they insisted to take her. It seemed like everybody was worried about her being by herself. They dropped her off at the cafe where she was meeting Natalia at and they extracted a promise from her that she wasn't going to walk home by herself.

As she walked into the cafe she was absorbed into taking in her surroundings. Despite the small amount of space the cafe inhabited, the decor made it seem very spacious. The decor also gave the cafe a homey atmosphere.

Once she was done looking at the decor she started to look for Natalia to see if she was already at the cafe. She then saw Natalia wave to her from a booth in the corner. Lily waved back and made her way over to Natalia. They exchanged a quick hug before they sat down.

"I hope I didn't make you wait too long," said Lily when she noticed Natalia's drink.

Natalia shrugged her off. "I go here often so I came a bit early. It's quiet and I can relax here."

Lily couldn't help but agree with her. The whole cafe did give off a calming aura.

"I'll get you something," said Natalia.

Lily tried to protest this but eventually lost, and Natalia soon returned with a drink and a couple of cookies.

"I got you a strawberry latte and a cookie since they have good cookies here."

Lily took a cautious sip of the drink and then took another one as she found out she liked it.

"I figured you would like it. I have a feeling what drink for you to try next."

They then fell into conversation about many topics. Sometime during this Natalia's foot rested against Lily's and she let it stay there. When Lily started rubbing Natalia's foot she responded by rubbing her back.

When they left the cafe the sun was already setting. Not wanting to bother Roderich's parents, she asked Natalia if she would walk her back to the house and Natalia agreed.

As they walked side by side they started to get closer to each other. Natalia's hand grazed Lily's and Lily bumped her hand back. A few seconds later they were holding hands and neither of them said a thing since they had nothing to say.

When they arrived at Roderich's house, Lily felt the disappointment rise in her.

"I have go home," said Natalia, disappointment obvious in her voice.

Lily nodded not knowing what to say during the current situation. Their hands started to let go but their fingers stayed intertwined.

Lily looked over to Natalia and tried to desperately think of something to say. Some way to put all these feeling that were welling up inside of her into words.

Natalia caught her glance and in that instant something was passed between them. Natalia leaned in and gently kissed Lily on the lips.

Surprised by her first kiss, it took Lily a few seconds before she returned the kiss.

"I'll text you when I get back home," said Natalia.

Lily nodded and as Natalia walked away their fingers stayed touching for as long as possible. As Lily walked up to the house she kept on rubbing her fingers over her lips. Walking in the house she started looking for her brother. She wanted to tell him about her first kiss.

When she did find her brother he was with Roderich and they were playing a card game and looking at very peace with each other. Not wanting to interrupt the moment she decided that she would tell him later. She figured she would text Elizabeta about it as she waited for Natalia to text her. She felt happy and for the first time since she could remember and calm.

* * *

The court date was fast approaching, but the atmosphere in the household stayed relatively calm. Everyone was sure that Roderich's parents would get guardianship except for Vash. He was nervous that something would go wrong and everything would be ruined. No matter what anyone else said, they couldn't convince him that everything was going to be okay. In the end they decided that Vash was purely worrying for worrying sakes since their wasn't much to be done. What needed to be done was filling out a bunch of paperwork, which was primarily done by Roderich's parents, and the occasional information provided by Vash and Lily.

The only part that brought any bit of worry from everyone involved was letting Greg know about the hearing. Since he was the current legal guardianship he had to be informed. Greg probably wouldn't even come, but it was a legal process anyway.

So Maja and Roland went together to give Greg the necessary paperwork about the upcoming hearing. The news that they brought back with them was surprising to everyone. When they went to the house where Greg lived, they found it surrounded by policemen. Apparently Greg had started dealing in drugs to get money, and he had been caught. He had been in a nearby police cruiser so they just gave him the paperwork right there and then.

When they told everyone of the news, everyone rejoiced. They didn't know how long he would stay in prison for the drug charges since he hadn't gone to court for it yet, but the fact that his actions were finally catching up to him gave everyone some relief.

The date of the hearing arrived and everybody was getting ready in the morning. Roderich's parents were assembling all the documents with the help of Lily, who was already ready to go, and Roderich was helping Vash with his tie.

"I don't see the purpose of wearing this suit," said Vash. The suit was very restricting and he didn't like the idea of having to wear a tie.

"We're going to court so you might as well look nice. It would look weird if you were the only one not dressed up." Roderich was tying the tie but Vash kept on fidgeting. "Stop moving around. It's hard to get this neat if you keep on moving around."

Vash mumbled an apology` and then started looking at everything but Roderich. Being this close to Roderich made him feel weird and every time he looked at Roderich the feeling increased. Since he didn't know what this meant, he figured he would just try to alleviate the problem as much as possible by not looking at him when he was this close.

"I'm done now." Roderich stepped away and Vash looked down to look at his tie. He started messing with it and Roderich got him to stop. "I don't see how you were these suits all the time."

Roderich shrugged. "I'm used to it. Let's go downstairs to see if they need our help with anything.

The gathering of the documents was done and they all piled into one of the cars and then went to the courthouse where the hearing would be held. When they arrived at the courthouse, there was a small group waiting for them outside. It was Gilbert, Elizabeta, and Natalia who wanted to give their support for the conclusion to what everyone had been working so hard for.

There was a lot of embracing before everyone headed into courthouse. The actual hearing was very boring and seemed very anti-climatic for most of them. There was no verbal debates or yelling involved. It was mostly answering the judge when he asked questions and being slightly relieved that Greg didn't bother to show up. After all it wasn't much of a chance that Roderich's parents wouldn't get guardianship considering they showed that they could very well take care of them plus their other legal guardian being in jail didn't leave much argument for whether Greg would still be a suitable guardian for them.

But even then everyone was relieved when the judge approved of Maja and Roland becoming Vash and Lily's guardians. With spirits high everyone went to Roderich's, and Lily's and Vash's officially now, house to have a celebration party. The party had already been planned before hand and they considered that they would need it even if the unthinkable was to happen.

With the cause of recent stress gone, everybody was much more carefree. Lily and Natalia also took the party as an opportunity to announce their relationship much to the surprise of everyone there. Everybody expected Vash to say something to Natalia, but he just congratulated them. Vash always had a slight admiration for Natalia and he knew that she would treat Lily right. Giving out threats about how she better not hurt Lily were unnecessary. He knew that Natalia wouldn't hurt her on purpose and heartache was something that couldn't be avoided in relationships.

The party was starting to get loud especially with Gilbert involved. Vash noticed that Elizabeta seemed to be just about as loud as him. He found himself slipping away from the party to find a little quiet. Eventually he noticed the sound of soft piano music playing. Wandering towards it he found Roderich playing on the piano. He stood at the doorway for a while before finally walking into the room towards the piano.

Roderich noticed that Vash had come in but kept on playing till the end of the song. As the last note faded he turned towards Vash. "You can sit next to me if you want."

Vash shuffled his feet for a bit before sitting next to him. "You did promise to play a song for me," said Vash.

"I did," said Roderich. "But it isn't done yet."

"What is that supposed to mean."

"I'm still composing it for you."

"That's not what I meant and you know it," said Vash.

"Yes, but I got a sudden inspiration and decided to compose a song for you."

"Fine. Finish it for me on my birthday."

"A birthday present? I'll finish it by then for you."

"Deal."

Roderich then started playing the next song. During this Elizabeta and Gilbert decided they would go look for Roderich and Vash since they were about to start up a board game and wanted to know if they were interested in playing. Upon finding them, Elizabeta decided to leave them alone and pulled Gilbert away.

"What are we doing? I thought we were going to ask if they wanted to play," said Gilbert.

"Yes, but they are having a moment so I don't want to interrupt it."

"Moment?"

Elizabeta debated on telling Gilbert, but then decided she might as well considering he was part of the deal that she made with Roderich. "Roderich has a crush on Vash."

Gilbert was a bit surprised by this but he figured he wouldn't have seen it coming since he didn't have a good sense for these kind of things. "How did you find that out?"

"Well earlier we made a deal about helping each other out with our romantic plights."

Gilbert smiled and said, "Aww. You loved me so much that you had to get Roderich to help you out."

Elizabeta lightly punched him on the arm and told him to shut up, but was smiling none the less. "We'll just tell everybody there busy doing something when we get back."

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**A/N: Only two chapters left! Please review!**


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